A Wooly Subject
by Jueso
Summary: Prophecies are often not fully understood until they come to pass. They thought they knew all the players. They thought they had all the information they needed to make their moves. They were wrong.
1. Prologue

AN: This story is actually the product of a line I read in 'Harry Crow' by Robst. It just got me wondering. Wondering became brainstorming, the brainstorming became a distraction so I decided to put in print. This is my first story after many many stories read. I'm not sure what my update schedule will be like as I do not consider myself a strong writer by any stretch. There will be some elements of 'The Dresden Files' by Jim Butcher but not enough I feel to warrent it being called a crossover. I do hope you all enjoy.

Standard Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Dresden Files' or 'Harry Potter'. I gain no profit from this other than to lay to rest the ideas that were popping in and about my head.

**London, 1960**

Steven Thatcher was sitting down speechless. Of all the things he was expecting to happen this year, this was not one of them. Celeste Lavigne was not someone he was expecting to see again, despite his wishes, let alone carrying a small four month old boy named Steven, after his father. He had just turned 18 and had just managed to secure a job at the London Ports and in no position to be supporting a family.

He had assumed due to her lack of contact that it was just a summer romance, just another teenage girl staying with some relatives in London over the summer holidays before heading back to France. Now here she was, looking completely downtrodden as if she were waiting for the other boot to drop. Not that he could blame her.

After a surprising phone call they had arranged to meet in this little pastry shop. He knew immediately where they were sitting as soon as he entered the shop, it was rather hard to miss the death glare locked on to him. Without so much as an introduction, Mr. Lavigne said five words that informed Steven that his life was going to change "She is your responsibility now" and left the tea shop without ever turning back.

**London, 1971**

The Thatcher family sat stunned in their living room. Magic was real. Little Steven was a wizard! Professor McGonnagal had arrived today with a letter for Steven Jr. and it all started to come together. The clothes that would change color, he hated pastels despite his mother's insistence on how good he looked, the vanishing vegetables from his dinner plate despite having no place to hide them and certainly how he managed to get hit by the car with not even a scratch, though it did not save him from his mothers' spanking for running blindly into a street.

Magical education was a no brainer but the thought of a boarding school was bringing them up short. They had inherited their house after his parents' sudden death 8 years ago. While it helped save on costs a boarding school was just simply out of the question. Even with the help of the special fund for muggleborn students the costs were simply out of their reach.

Thankfully the Ministry sponsored schools were free. Books, from the looks of things, they could afford. Steven and Celeste silently vowed that they would make every effort to supply their son with every resource in pursuit of his education.

**Paris, 1976**

The Thatchers were trying to enjoy a rare vacation for a holiday. They had a dual purpose for the trip. The first was Steven Jr graduating at the top of his class. Judging by his grades the investment in books for him had paid off quite well. He had even managed to secure a job as a Curse Breakers assistant. From the way he described it, it involved a lot of travel and more opportunity to learn new magic but the pay was rather inconsistent depending on the 'plunder'.

The elder Thatchers were concerned for a little while. While they were aware that Steven had missed out on the Hogwarts scholarship, it wasn't until about 2 weeks later that he came home noticeably upset after a trip to the Ministry of Magic. He had stayed depressed for about a week, his spirits only lifting upon receiving his notification on his new job.

Celeste was more than a little put off on the fact that her only child would be out joining the world at only 16. She was hoping that he would have stayed home for a few years longer pursuing his muggle education. Her mood certainly wasn't improved upon with the other reason they were back in France.

They had tried reconciliation with her father 6 years earlier at the behest of her grandfather. Her grandfather was the only family member that had managed to stay in contact with her. Tired of only seeing pictures, he wanted to see his favorite grandchild and great-grandson in person, but with his son taking her pregnancy as a personal affront, the reunion efforts had died before anything could be planned.

Salvadore Lavigne had fought in two world wars, and led a resistance cell in occupied France before taking over the family vineyards. Through a combination of hard work, charm, his war record, and business savvy he had managed to turn the vineyards into an international name. Sadly, due to the injuries accumulated through 2 world wars the stress that accompanied running a vineyard the size he had built it to was counterproductive to his health and had to hand the reigns to his son twenty years ago.

His health had deteriorated quickly in the past year. His dying wish was to see his granddaughter and great-grandson before he died. Unfortunately, it had taken 6 months to convince his son and thus the Thatchers had arrived a day too late.

The funeral was a solemn affair. Young Steven didn't know how to feel. On the one hand, he had only heard of his great-grandfather with pictures being his only point of reference. On the other, impossible not to know just how much he meant to his mother and could not help but shed a some tears with her.

With the services concluded the Thatchers had made to leave only to be intercepted by Peirre Lavigne, Celeste's father. Upon seeing his daughter arrive with what would be his oldest grandchild, something in him had changed. Whatever resolve he had built up over the last 16 years had broken as he saw her and her family when they entered the viewing room.

He didn't know what he was going to say or what he could do to try to reconcile with his daughter. He was hoping an offer to stay at the family home for the remainder of their holiday would be enough time to get things started but he never got the chance to even offer. Before he could utter a single syllable a thundering crack was heard throughout the room as her slap floored him.

Staring up at her, he was met with her glare. It was the same glare he mused that must have adorned his own face when he abandoned Celeste to her husband. He had a sudden realization at that moment, and found that it wasn't that much of a surprise, he was too late.

Staring at her father until he dropped his head in shame Celeste grabbed the hands of her son and husband and left the estate. She never bothered looking back.

**London 1979**

Steven and Celeste were regretting ever letting Professor McGonnagal into their home and introducing them to the world of Magic. The past three years had been difficult as they found themselves on the peripherals of the wizarding civil war going on and sometimes in the middle of battles.

They worried when they had first heard of the war when their son was in school but found that for the most part it was invisible to them. The battles were happening in the magical world and the schools were never targeted.

They realized two years ago that it was a saving grace that their son's occupation took him out of the country regularly and for significant periods of time. After all, he couldn't be involved if he wasn't even in the country by their logic.

Eventually, the fights they were hearing about were starting to spill into the muggle world. Muggleborns were starting to be targeted. Missing persons reports were being announced more and more and the weeks went by. Then it happened.

The parents of muggleborns were being targeted. Despite not being a student anymore their son had warded their home. He insisted that it was only precautionary, if any wizard arrived and tried to cast any spell within a 100 foot radius of the home the wards would alarm and remove the person from the vicinity. He relayed that the strength of the wards would be strong enough to keep the wizard or witch out long enough to call the police. Wizards hated having to deal with police and would normally leave quickly.

Despite his assurances Steven Jr. knew he had become a target. He had worked his way from being a mere Curse Breakers assistant to an apprenticeship under Jonathan and Samantha Skewers. He had impressed them when a nundu had attacked their camp. Steven Jr had notified the camp of the creature's tracks he had found while surveying the surrounding area for edibles, putting them all on alert. In the subsequent attack a week later he delayed activating his own emergency portkey to retrieve the Skewer's notes on the tomb they were trying to enter.

When he finally arrived at the rallying point the Skewers first berated him for doing something so foolish. They then informed him that if he was going to go out and perform stupid acts of heroism then he would need as much magical knowledge that he could handle. He was to start his apprenticeship as soon as he recovered from the injuries the nundu had given him.

When word got out that the Skewer's had taken on an apprentice, people were of course curious. It quickly turned to disgust in certain circles when they learned that a 'mudblood' had earned the coveted position without really trying when deserving purebloods had been vying for the position for years.

The first attack happened when the elder Thatcher's had accompanied their soon to Diagon Alley to buy a new trunk before going to catch a movie as a family. The family had managed to take shelter in Madam Malkins while the Auror's and Deatheaters battled outside. Steven Jr had quickly helped the Auror's in the fight realizing that with the Deatheaters anti-apparition wards up there was no way to safely evacuate his parents. Pushing the Deatheaters back into Knockturn alley he quickly started to break the wards to allow those trapped in the alley to escape.

Unfortunately it was at that time that Lord Voldemort had decided to make his appreance. The Auror Frank Longbottom and James Potter distracted the Dark Lord long enough for Steven to finish bringing down the wards. Once down he raced to where his parents were hiding and he followed the Aurors example and side-along apparated them away to safety.

Fearing that he'd been recognized Steven Jr. supplied his parents with an emergency portkey. He was leaving on another expedition and wanted another measure to help protect them. It wasn't even month after he had left that his parents needed used it.

Steven Jr's fear had come true. A former classmate, Michael Parkinson, had taken the dark mark after being awarded a scholarship to continue his education at Hogwarts. Michael had recognized Steven as he was bringing down the wards at Diagon Alley. The Dark Lord had demanded to know the name of the one responsible for allowing the escape of Longbottom and Potter. Being a faithful Deatheater, Micheal offered up Steven's name, as well as informing his lord of Stevens' coveted apprenticeship explaining his ability to bring down the wards. The order was out, the mudblood what be taught what it meant to interfere with Lord Voldemort's plans.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your outlook, Steven had warded his families home very well. None of the Deatheaters who had gone to attack the home were skilled enough to bring down the wards themselves. Frustrated with his followers lack of ability, while giving grudging respect to the teachings of the Skewer's, Lord Voldemort arrived himself to drop the wards. Fortunately for the Thatchers, when the Deatheaters entered the house they were far away having activated their portkey.

Finding themselves in a Ministry sponsored refugee point from giant attacks. The Thatcher's were on the verge of panic with no idea on what to do next. After contacting work for time off, stating a family emergency, the Thatchers planned their next move. It was a week later that the Deatheaters had attacked the refugee center.

Celeste was dropped to ground screaming in agony when a Deatheater stumbled on their hiding spot. Steven was about to charge the wizard when a witch arrived driving off his wife's attacker. While he never got her name he swore he'd make it up to his wife's red-headed savior somehow. After making said oath he quickly picked up his wife and made his way to the evacuation points where another portkey would take them away to safety.

**Hogsmeade 1980**

Albus Wulfric Percival Brian Dumbledore was concerned. While fully expecting to end the day with the removal of Divination as an elective at Hogwarts, Sybyll Trawleny had done what most would have thought the impossible. She had made a prophecy. Not just any prophecy mind you, one about the Lord Voldemort and his future vanquisher. What's worse, one of the Dark Lords Deatheaters' had managed to hear the first part of it. He had managed to get away from Aberforth but at least he did not hear the entire prophecy.

Actions had to be taken, and soon. It did not take him long to deduce the possible suspects. Both Alice and Lily had just announced their pregnancies much to the joy of their families and close friends. However, he had to contact them soon, and encourage them to keep the news quite as long as they can manage it. He was aware of spies in the Order but had not yet managed to figure out who.

Regardless, plans had to be made. He had to play things close to the vest, possibly even keeping the Longbottoms and Potters in the dark until it was time to act. If the prophecy he had just heard was true then the wizarding world could ill-afford to let Tom and his followers catch wind of his plans.

For a moment, just a moment, he considered the possibility that he was acting too rashly. After all, Divination as a whole is a wooly subject and it was almost routine for prophesies to not be fully understood until after they come to completion. But for the life of him he could not think of anyone else that the prophecy could possibly apply to. No, he had to move forward with his plans; the wizarding world depended on it.

**Paris 1980**

Celeste was in shock, it just couldn't be true, not after all this time. They had tried and tried over the years but had given up hope over the last few. She was currently sitting in the home of one of her cousins pondering her next course of action.

After years of begging and pleading she had decided to take up some of her families offers at reconciliation. Her cousins were offering to be the mediators and offered her a place to stay for the next several months as they attempted to bring her back into the family folds. It was a slow process, some family members were still influenced by her father's opinions of her over the years. She was listed as a disgrace with such vehemence that it was not easy to change their impression, especially with the image she left them with at her grandfathers' funeral. While she was having some minor success with some cousins, she simply could not even stomach the idea of being in the same room with her father. Besides, coming to France for the attempt had gotten them out of London. She just hoped that the next few months didn't add too much stress, she had her doubts that her body could manage it.

Steven had arranged a sabbatical from work to care for Celeste while she recovered. Whatever the Deatheater had hit her with, it had weakened her constitution. She tired faster, slept for longer, and had intermittent bouts of flaring pain. Her doctors were stumped. It was as it all of her nerve endings would suddenly flare at the same time without any stimulus. While the flares were becoming more infrequent they had their doubts that she'd ever make a full recovery.

Returning home after some minor 'negotiations', for lack of a better word, with his estranged father-in-law Steven found his wife almost on the verge tears. "Whats wrong ma petite chuchu?" he asked as he quickly made his way to her side. Celeste smiled at the term of endearment he had started calling her all those years ago when they first met.

Wiping her eyes, she took his hands in hers and let him know what was on the forefront of her mind. "I'm pregnant."


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I still own nothing or Harry Potter or Dresden Files.

The Burrow

Hermione had just run downstairs with Harry's announcement of their impending O.W.L. scores. Her nervousness had grown exponentially when she saw the incoming owls on the horizon.

"Oh I just know I failed everything!" she exclaimed.

Harry and Ron shared knowing smirks upon hearing her, knowing how far from the truth that would be. Reviewing their scores the boys were not in the least bit surprised with their scores or class ranks, the latter showing them both in the middle of their year at Hogwarts. "Can't really be surprised here" said Harry, grinning ruefully at his Divination and History of Magic scores before swapping scores with Ron.

"So how'd you do Herminone?" asked Ginny, noticing a perplexed look on the aforementioned face.

Shocked out of concentration at being addressed she replied "Alright I suppose, just…here, take a look." Handing the sheet to Ginny everyone read over her shoulder.

**O****RDINARY ****W****IZARDING ****L****EVEL ****R****ESULTS**

**_Pass Grades Fail Grades_**

OUTSTANDING (O) POOR (P)

EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS (E) DREADFUL(D)

ACCEPTABLE (A) TROLL (T)

**_Hermione Jane Granger has acheieved:_**

**_Ancient Runes O_**

**_Arithmancy O_**

**_Astronomy O_**

**_Care of Magical Creatures O_**

**_Charms O_**

**_Defense Against the Dark Arts E_**

**_Herbology O_**

**_History of Magic O_**

**_Muggle Studies O_**

**_Potions O_**

**_Transfiguration O_**

Hogwarts Class Rank: 1

British Ministry of Magic Class Rank: 2

"You're seriously upset that you didn't get straight O's Hermione?" asked Ron with a grin on his face. "You still pulled out 11 O.W.L.s, no reason to be upset".

Getting a little frustrated by his smirk she replied "Of course not! I mean yes I'm a little disappointed at myself but that's not it, look at the bottom"

Quickly catching on Harry noticed her class rank. "How are things scored things where you get the top of the class but only ranked two in the entire Ministry?"

"Well…" Hermione started, putting much effort into trying to figure things out herself "I know that there are Ministry run schools throughout the country, including Ireland and Scotland. My parents asked Professor McGonnagal when I first got my letter to see if there were alternatives to Hogwarts, they were a little hesitant at me being gone for so long and so far away."

"Ministry run schools?" asked Harry, his curiosity piqued.

"Dads mentioned them to us before" Ron cut in. "Mom used to threaten the twins with pulling them out of Hogwarts and sending them to one if they kept up with the pranks. I think all it did was make them better at not being caught."

"Hogwarts is the top school for a reason" said Molly, trying to work out the situation for herself. "The ministry run schools are simply not up the standards of Hogwarts." With confusion etched clearly on Harry's face, he asked "Why not? Granted this is the first I've heard of them but how bad can they be?"

Seeing her opportunity to answer Hermione replied "The Ministry run schools don't offer any of the elective courses or even DADA, Astronomy, or Herbology. Can you imagine not even taking DADA? Granted we haven't exactly had the best teachers but still. They also don't offer any opportunities to get N.E.W.T.s. From what the professor told us, straight A's is usually the best one could usually expect coming from a Ministry school. That became the selling point for my parents, they knew that while I might be far away that at least I'd be getting the best instruction."

"We 'ave seemilar schools in France" stated Fleur, letting herself be heard for the first time. Seeing that the younger members of the group wanted to hear more she continued. "Eet was usually dee trade families or zee very poor who sent zee children zere. Zee schools are free of course, so all magical children can get some education. Zee trade families usually just want zee children to gain O.W.L.s so zey can keep zier wands. Most of the magic zey learn are very speceefic to the family shops so zey can help and eeventually take over or open a new shop zemselves."

"What do mean trade families?" Harry asked, trying to get a better gauge of the situation for himself.

"Like Ollivanders Harry" informed Molly, deciding to start cleaning up from breakfast while educating Harry on the full education system the Ministry had in place. "Wandcrafting has such a unique skill set that they don't put much emphasis on anything that doesn't help them in their craft so don't feel the need to learn more than the bare necessities. Cost ends up being a large factor as well. While the budget may have been thin at times Arthur and I have been fortunate enough to send all our children to Hogwarts so they can make the best of themselves" she continued while giving a pointed look at Ron knowing his recurring issues with the family wealth.

Seeing Ron's ears turning pink in acknowledgement of the subtle chastisement she continued "Hogwarts is costly, especially with multiple children. Trade families income is directly tied to the shops success so they tend to put away a slush fund for when business is slow or to cover unavoidable accidents like fires and such. Since sending multiple children to Hogwarts would drain funds even more, only the oldest child is usually sent to Hogwarts, with the hopes that they earn friends and contacts with other families that may help in the future."

"But they're not the only ones who go to the Ministry schools right?" Harry pressed.

"Sadly no…" Molly replied "Hogwarts is expensive, not every family is able to afford it. As a department head Arthur earns enough. Bill and Charlie helped some when Ron and Ginny started, and we offset some costs with the garden and like. The wizarding world is full of those who've just barely earned O.W.L.s and working as store clerks and the like, from my understanding if not for a special fund for muggleborns hardly any would be able to attend, as it is, the costs are such that still only a few are able to each year, much less than previous years. "

Knowing that Hogwarts was paid for by his parents before their deaths he sent and inquiring look Hermione's way. Recognizing the look she bashfully replied "They're Dentists remember? While the costs are in no way insignificant, between the offset the muggleborn fund provides and what my parents earn they're able to afford sending me without problems."

Still trying to piece together the situation Harry asked "So if the Ministry schools aren't up to par with Hogwarts, how did someone rank higher than Hermione? Homeschooling?"

"Not allowed, my parents asked seeing if there was a way for me to keep up with my muggle education as well as magical. Too much worry over magical accidents needing reversal squads in muggle areas and magical homes really don't want to cover the costs for materials for items they could get for free from a Ministry school." Hermione said, still trying to piece together how.

"So from my understanding, someone out there went to an inferior school that didn't even offer Astronomy or Herbology as core courses, never mind electives, and still managed to outscore Hermione on O.W.L.s?" said Harry, succinctly summarizing what everyone was wondering.

Finally putting together the issue Ron blurted "Blimey, can you imagine? I thought just having one Hermione would have been enough for the world, can you imagine having to deal with two if this person came to Hogwarts as well?" Immediately cringing as he heard Hermione's replay "I'm glad to hear I'm such a burden Ronald, I'll keep that in mind next time you need help with your homework!"

"That's enough you lot" said Molly, quickly cutting in before Ron could reply "Save the mystery for later, it's too beautiful a morning to stay inside. Spend some time outside and I'll call you in for lunch."

Immediately perking up with the thought of his next meal Ron grabbed Harry and pulled him out for some Quidditch, barely hearing Hermione muttering "Honestly" as she and Ginny followed the boys outside.

Somewhere in Mexico, Aztec Ruins

Salvadore Thatcher was torn. On the one hand the soon to be sixteen year-old accomplished what he had set out to do, on the other, it meant that it would be at least 2 more years before he could get started on his ultimate goal: leaving magical Britain. From what he learned from classmates, he wasn't exactly enthused about Hogwarts either. The pureblood bigotry was growing more each year and with the Voldemorte's return at the start of the summer, he'd rather not be confined in a prime target location.

Hearing footsteps behind him Salvadore turned around seeing the site foreman Jonathan approaching. Not waiting for acknowledgement Jonathan asked "So did you do it? Is that second piece of parchment the offer or are they laughing at you for even trying?"

"Yes, it's the offer. I hope you understand why I'm not jumping around hootin and hollering. All things considered I'm counting this as a mixed blessing" he answered handing the pieces of parchment over to Jonathan for his review.

**O****RDINARY ****W****IZARDING ****L****EVEL ****R****ESULTS**

**_Pass Grades Fail Grades_**

OUTSTANDING (O) POOR (P)

EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS (E) DREADFUL(D)

ACCEPTABLE (A) TROLL (T)

**_Salvadore Jason Thatcher has acheieved:_**

**_Ancient Runes O_**

**_Arithmancy O_**

**_Astronomy O_**

**_Care of Magical Creatures O_**

**_Charms O_**

**_Defense Against the Dark Arts O_**

**_Divination O_**

**_Herbology O_**

**_History of Magic O_**

**_Muggle Studies O_**

**_Potions O_**

**_Transfiguration O_**

Ministry School London Campus Class Rank: 1

British Ministry of Magic Class Rank: 1

With a grin Jonathan quickly flipped to the second page confirming its contents.

**Dear Mr. Thatcher,**

**After a careful evaluation of all O.W.L scores earned this year it is my distinct honor to award you a Ministry Academic Scholarship to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This scholarship will cover all costs a perspective student would incur during a school year associated to tuition, standard school supplies, five additional books outside of those required for class, robes, and a wand. Please be aware, this prestigious award is only given to at most three students each year granted that have qualified for N.E.W.T level courses. **

**Please reply by owl no later 31st of July with your intention to forego or accept this scholarship. If you choose to accept, you will receive correspondence from Deputy Headmistress McGonnagal regarding your future classes and vouchers for payment. Congratulations on your accomplishment and I sincerely hope you will take advantage of this enormous opportunity.**

** Respectfully,**

** Calvin Longshores**

** Head, Department of Magical Education**

** British Ministry of Magic**

"You know they'd all be right proud of you right?" Jonathan asked.

"Yes, but it doesn't make me wish they were here to hear for themselves any less" he replied, eyes betraying the emotions that he was fighting to hold at bay. Taking a deep breath to center himself, Salvadore flipped the second letter around and grabbing a quill wrote his two word reply 'I accept'.

Stuffing the letter back in its original envelope he quickly re-addressed it to Governor Marchbanks and asked "May I use Hooter to send the reply? Might as well get the ball rolling and start making arrangements to head back sooner rather than later. With any luck I can stay at the Leaky Cauldron and avoid the inevitable power play that'd happen back home."

"Of course" he answered "he's been itching to get out and spread his wings for a while, you decide on what courses you planning on taking yet? If you say Divination I swear on Merlin's left nut I'll throw you in one of these tombs and bury you alive. Why you bothered with that codswallop in the first place is beyond me."

Feeling rather indignant Salvadore replied "Hey, there's no such thing as useless knowledge. YOU drilled that into Stevens head his first day with you and you certainly drilled it into mine on my first as well. You're just mad that you had to haul the supplies yourself while I was doing my self-study for it and correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't it your rule that I wasn't to be disturbed during the time allotted for my revising?"

"No, that was Samantha's" Jonathan stated, not looking the slightest bit pleased with the memories. "I swear my wife loves you more than she does me."

"It's cause you keep freezing her feet at night, isn't it suppose to be the other way around?" came Salvadore's cheeky reply.

"I have poor circulation! " he stated defensively "She knew that before we married, I don't see why she keeps holding that against me. C'mon, let's contact the goblins and see about getting you a portkey back early. Don't imagine there'd be a problem. Temple was easy enough to break through we probably could have done with half the crew we came with, though from hearing how the last expedition went I'm not surprised they set it up like this. I imagine they'll be sending crews here regularly for the next couple years until they get every temple searched. Fancy a return next year?"

"Of course" was Salvadore's confident answer. "Those tomes we were able to get translated gave me an idea that project of mine. With any luck Hogwarts will give me the final piece and I can get started on it."

Staring at Salvadore, Jonathan gave a warning "Don't be trifling with that kind of magic Salvadore. We didn't take you in just to lose you to some half-baked idea of yours. I admit it's got potential but you don't want to go forward without knowing everything involved. What's the second rule?"

"It will either work or it won't, it's usually your life on the line so you better make damn sure it'll work" was Salvadore's automatic answer having memorized all of Jonathans rules on his first day accompanying him on a curse breaking expedition. "I know, it's why I haven't done anything yet. Once I get it all sorted I'll send it over for you and Samantha to double check. Somehow I doubt with Headmaster Dumbledore at the helm there that I'd find much support for the idea. I promise, I won't do anything until I get your guys confirmation."

Nodding in approval, Jonathan led Salvadore to where Samantha was, to share the news and his decision. After much cheering and crying on her part arrangements were made to send Salvadore back in three days. Salvadore didn't know what to expect but he was already hoping he wouldn't regret his decision.


	3. Chapter 2

Standard disclaimer: The respective works belong to their respective authors.

**London**

Salvadore walked up the street toward his home with his head down. He was kicking himself for erring on the side of caution and not packing all of his belongings. The portkey from camp was set to arrive at 8 am local time. That of course meant that he'd have to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to make the departure time. He had said his goodbyes to Jonathan and Samantha, promising to write once he got settled in.

After leaving his travel gear at the Leaky Cauldron he decided to make a quick trip home to pack some personal mementos and bring down the wards before contacting a realtor to get it sold. He really wouldn't need it now that he was going to board up at Hogwarts. Staying at the Cauldron would be cheap enough to stay for the remainder of his summer holiday and any other time he would spend in London. Knowing most of his next summer would be spent with Jonathan and Samantha he reckoned this would be the longest he would spend in London for the remainder of his time in school.

While he knew that he would put on a good showing for his O.W.L.s, he really was not expecting to be offered the scholarship. Being a muggleborn in a Ministry sponsored school, he saw that the system was rigged to give purebloods the advantage. The same quality work handed in would usually result in a higher grade awarded to the pureblood. Hearing the talk from other students with older siblings at Hogwarts, he and his brother had figured out that any pureblood with at least one E in a subject qualified for the scholarship. It seemed as though no matter how well the muggleborn did, no matter the class rank, nothing seemed to qualify.

"Why would we send a mudblood to learn magic they could not possible understand when there are perfectly capable purebloods just waiting for their opportunity to further contribute to our society?" was the response Steven got from the Head of the Department of Magical Education at the time, one Dolores Umbridge. Steven had heard and later confirmed that despite pulling the top rank in his class, one Matthew Parkinson, who pulled a rank of fourth in their class behind Steven and two other muggleborns, had been awarded a scholarship despite only pulling 1 E in potions to Stevens mix of O's and E's.

By the time Salvadore had started his magical education Steven had the suspicion that the only way for a muggleborn to qualify would be to run the table on all the tests offered. Muggleborns, were usually not even aware of the O.W.L.s available outside of the core courses offered at the Ministry school. While not always proctored, due to lack of test takers, the Wizarding Exam Authority always sent examiners for all the courses offered in the British Ministry. Some of the pureblood families obviously taught their children themselves for those courses not offered so they could sit in on the test and earn additional O.W.L.s to work in the family shops.

"Well look who decided to grace us with his presence boys. Welcome back Sal." Interrupted from his musings, Salvadore immediately cursed his luck as he recognized the voice of the person he was hoping to avoid. He was hoping that Chris and his goons would be busying themselves elsewhere so he could get in, grab his belongings and get out.

Chris Langdon was the local street muscle. After dropping out of school he decided to make a run of streets while peddling whatever he could get his hands on. Chris seemed intent on recruiting him as additional muscle or barring that, beating him to a pulp. Salvadore knew it was a result of the neighborhood fights he would inevitably find himself in when he was home. Growing up without a father and an sickly mother when he was younger would of course lead to teasing from the school bullies, which with his younger temper would lead to the usual ruckus. He'd lost count of the black eyes, split lips, and bruised ribs he received when was younger but he was quite proud of the fact that there were usually one or two that were left worse off than he by the time they were separated by some of the older neighbors.

Salvadore didn't learn reign in his temper until Jonathan had started him on the basics of Occlumency three years ago. It was painfully difficult, but it was a condition Jonathan placed before he would agree to teach Salvadore anything resembling advanced magic. "An emotional wizard is a dead wizard" Jonathan had stated "Emotions have their time and place, but they do not belong in situations where you need to think quick and clearly, let them fuel you but never let them control you." It had taken the better part of two months of daily lessons and meditation before he started to show progress.

Thankfully, puberty had kicked in around the time of the lessons, so while the neighborhood thugs had smelled blood with his more controlled temper, they were more wary of a growth spurt and the added muscle he was now sporting, it certainly didn't help their confidence considering Salvadore was always one of the larger kids in the neighborhood even before his growth spurt. Unfortunately, it was those exact things that kept the neighborhood kids at bay and attracted Chris to recruit him at the same time. After all, anyone who made the local muscle pause and be wary was worth taking a second look at in his opinion.

Letting out a sigh Salvadore replied "Afternoon, Chris. Look, I know it's morning but I'm already looking at a long day and I'm not really looking forward to this song and dance. What do you want?"

"Watch your tone gutter trash!" Chris shot back, frustrated that despite bringing a couple of extra guys for muscle, Salvadore refused to be intimidated. It was time to up the ante in his opinion. Pulling out a small knife from his pants pocket, he opened the blade with his thumb and held it there while he talked to Salvadore. "I really don't know what your problem is, run with me and we'd own these streets. I've tried to be patient and convince you this would be for the best I guess you need a lesson."

Quickly rationalizing that there was no way to salvage the situation without coming out seriously injured, Salvadore decided to change the situation and quickly turned around and ran for it. "Get him!" Chris ordered his cronies as they began to give chase.

Salvadore quickly took inventory of his items. Daggers, locked in trunk. Wand, locked in trunk. Enchanted necklace, good against low to moderate hexes, jinxes, and curses but bad against fists and blades. That left him with his kinetic rings and the parlor trick he learned from an old scroll salvaged from an Egyptian tomb in his third year. Turning down and alley he decided that his would be as good a place as any to try and turn the tables.

Coming to a dead stop and turning around he started focusing his magic on his eyes making them give off a red glow. Egyptian priests apparently used this spell to convince the masses of their divine connections. Wandless and completely silent, the only limiting factor was the casters creativity. Samantha had taken to making her eyes look like rainbows while drunk the first night she had learned it. The only drawback is it resulted in a massive headache when the spell was released usually lasting about twice as long as the spell was held. They also found that while the spell improved vision in dark locations, the headache involved made torches and _Lumos_ the more attractive options.

"Finally given up and ready to take you beating like a man eh? I gotta say, this is definitely going to hurt you more than it does…What the…!" Chris never got to finish his sentence. Startled by the sight of Salvadore standing in a dark alley with glowing red eyes he was vaguely aware of Salvadore's hands shooting out before feeling like his whole body was hit by a bus.

Seeing his chasers thrown back toward the entrance of Salvadore ran up to make sure they were unconscious and not critically injured before checking the state of his rings. The steel he had used wasn't the most durable material he could have used but it was cheap and he had to go through a lot of prototypes before he got the runic formula just right. He was hoping to upgrade to some goblin steel or preferably silver as they tended to be the best conduits for magic. It had taken him almost a year to finish but when he did, he felt it was well worth it.

He had enchanted the rings to store a little bit of the kinetic energy generated from his arm movements. The rings were keyed to him so the trigger was simply him willing the release of the energy. One of the hardest parts was getting the energy to release in the direction away from his hand. He had almost shattered his arm and had thrown himself about numerous times before he got it set. Samantha was not pleased with his accumulated injuries and had made it a point to heal him in the most painful ways possible in each instance.

Hoping that Chris and company would be too scared to relay what they experienced Salvadore left the alley to get the packing he had set out to accomplish done. Kicking himself for leaving his wand in his trunk, he vowed to never make that mistake again. One _Confundus_ charm and he could have avoided that whole incident. What was the point of being emancipated if he didn't take opportunities to actually use his magic.

**The Leaky Cauldron**

After packing up his home Salvadore made an appointment with the realtor for the next day. Anxious, he stepped out into Diagon Alley intent on getting a new wand. The second hand wand he had shopped for when he turned 11 was good enough but he could feel that it was never quite right. He knew that he was getting a voucher for a new wand when he got in contact with Deputy Headmistress McGonnagal but he just couldn't wait. His earlier encounter with Chris reinforcing his decision he made his way to the wand shop.

10 ½ inches, Cherry with Thestral hair, somewhat rigid. It cast the spells well enough for his O.W.L.s but he wanted something better crafted and he knew Ollivander's was the place to go. Cost was always a prohibitive factor for him, never finding justification for getting a better matched want while his was working well enough. But with starting Hogwarts this term and having a breakthrough on his personal project he didn't want to leave anything to chance and knew it was time to buy a new wand.

Having already visited Gringott's earlier in the day he stepped inside Ollivander's and evaluated what he saw. Feeling a little disappointed he was half expecting to see rows of containers full of wand parts, not boxes containing the wands themselves. Guessing that the wands must be made elsewhere he stepped up to the counter and rang the bell.

"I'll be right there" came a voice from the back. "Can I help you young man?" Ollivander asked as he reached the counter.

"Yes sir, I'm starting Hogwarts this year and I was hoping for a properly match want" was Salvadore's answer feeling a little unnerved at the way the shopkeeper was evaluating him.

"Ah yes, I had heard from Mr. Longshores that a scholarship had been awarded this year. Congratulations by the way. Although I must admit I was not expecting you until early next month." Nodding in acknowledgement Salvadore jumped a little as a measuring tape starting whirling around him. He finally had to bat it away as it had started to try measuring his eyes.

"Don't worry about the cost" he continued "I know the vouchers normally arrive with the booklists. I'll just owl Mr. Longshores directly and arrange the payment. It happens every year, young students anxious for their wands simply can't wait for their wands, why the Ministry just doesn't send the vouchers with the award letter I'll never know…ah here we are try this one. 10 inches, cherry, with a particularly nasty gryphon feather, with a supple bend to it."

Ollivander snatched the wand out of his hand almost as soon as he touched it. "Hmmm, not quite right there" the old shopkeeper mused. So it went for the better part of five minutes before they found their match. In the end he walked out with a holster, a care kit, a beginners guide to wand crafting, but most importantly a new wand. It was 11 inches, ash, with a heartstring from a 300 year old basilisk, unyielding, perfect for curses, hexes and jinxes. Thankful that the experience hadn't taken as long as some of the horror stories he'd heard from classmates, he returned to his room hoping to turn in for the day.


	4. Chapter 3

Standard disclaimer. Do not own Harry Potter or Dresden files. What little of it will be in this story.

**Daigon Alley**

Salvadore spent the next couple weeks getting accustomed to his new wand and continuing his research. He went about testing everything, from the strength of his jinxes, curses, jinxes, and shields to the strength of the wards. The wards were on par with what he expected. They were more robust and harder to take down.

What really surprised him was how much easier it was to cast charms and transfigurations. While he would never be classified as an expert in either subject, he was somewhat comforted with the knowledge that when a spell went wrong it was due his own casting and not a quirk due to a not fully suitable wand.

So lost in his experimentation and research he almost missed his appointed time he would meet the Deputy Headmistress to arrange his upcoming class schedule and to approve the use of the scholarship vouchers for his purchases.

Walking down to the Leaky Cauldron's lobby he spotted the stern looking professor sitting at the bar partaking of some freshly brewed tea.

"Deputy Headmistress McGonnagal?" he enquired to just be sure. At her confirming nod he extended his hand and continued "Salvadore Thatcher ma'am, a pleasure to meet you."

"Ah, Mr. Thatcher. It most certainly is. I must say I was quite intrigued when I learned a scholarship student would be attending this year, it's been six years since we've had one, let alone a muggleborn. Why, the last time a muggleborn was awarded the scholarship, according to my research, was over 50 years ago. To be awarded one now is quite the honor, you should be quite proud of your accomplishment." She stated with obvious approval caught in her tone. "But please, 'Professor McGonnagal' or 'Professor' is sufficient when addressing me. I'd imagine saying Deputy Headmistress is quite the mouthful and would get tiring."

Salvadore knew then that he was going to like the stern professor. While not foolish enough to try bantering, he felt that he could approach her with his concerns and get away with the occasional cheeky reply.

"Yes, I had heard that, not since the rise of Grindelwald. Completely unrelated events I'm sure" He said, catching the a corner of her mouth turn upward just the slightest bit. "Yes, I'm sure" was her reply after a snort that said she believed that about as much as he did. "Well, let us get started Mr. Thatcher. Have you picked out what N.E.W.T courses you wanted to enroll in?"

"Yes professor, I was hoping for Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Defence against the Dark Arts, Charms, Herbology, and Transfiguration" he stated with certainty.

"A very challenging selection Mr. Thatcher, though I must admit that I'm curious why you wouldn't add potions to your schedule. Your O.W.L's suggest that you could certainly handle the workload. Have you ever had a career counseling session at the Ministry school?" she queried. With his class selection she had a clue as to what career he was aiming for it certainly wouldn't hurt to confirm and see if the school couldn't help in some way or other.

Wondering if she knew the extent of the Ministry 'Career Counseling' he decided to fill her in on his experience with such events. "I have in fact, professor. However, at the time for those of us outside of the trade families our options were usually limited to low level clerks at the ministry or conductors for the Knight bus. Neither of which held much appeal to me. As for potions, I had considered it but Professor Snapes' reputation precedes him and I really don't feel like submitting myself to his ministrations as a worthwhile endevour."

Seeing her look of understanding he continued "My chosen career field would just view a N.E.W.T in potions as a bonus. An O.W.L is viewed as sufficient. However, if I may enquire, is there a deadline to add a new course should I decide one?"

"Before the second class" was her prompt reply. "Considering that these are your N.E. , anything beyond that is viewed as being too far behind to catch up. Sadly, it is also my obligation to warn you about Defense Against the Dark Arts. We have not had the best examples of teaching the subject these past few years. While the position is listed as filled, I have not yet been notified of just who it is. So please make an effort to plan some self study just in case. I would hate to see fail a N.E.W.T due to substandard instruction. Though anyone has got to be better after last years' abomination." she all but mumbled the last part so low he almost didn't catch it.

"Yes professor, I am aware." Salvadore stated. "Unfortunately, it will be a required course for me. At a minimum the class will offer some undisturbed practice time. However, should the worse come to worse I'm sure something can be figured out."

Nodding her head in approval the professor continued. "Normally career counseling would happen in your fifth year, with the beginning of your sixth being reserved to make changes depending on your O.W.L.s, if I may inquire, what are your career ambitions? I'll be sure to pass it along to your future Head of House so they may advise your appropriately."

"Curse Breaker, professor" he answered confidently. The Skewers had done a thorough job of letting him know just what they expected from him by the time he finished Hogwarts. While not a large list, he knew it was going to take a lot of time in the library to complete. Jonathan and Samantha were not considered premier curse breakers for nothing and he had no intention of letting them down. "In fact professor I have an apprenticeship already lined up. All I have to do now is complete my N.E. with a suitable grade and the position is mine for the taking."

To say Minerva McGonnagal was surprised at the announcement would be an understatement granted it was commonplace for the trade families to apprentice their children upon receipt of O.W.L.s. But for a muggleborn, as a curse breaker no less, it was just unheard of. She just had to learn more "With who did you arrange the apprenticeship?" She prodded, hoping that he was being taken in for a fool by some unscrupulous type.

"The Skewers professor, I'm sure you've heard of them. In fact they've had nothing but glowing praise for you when they learned that you were the Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts, I'm definitely looking forward to your class" 'not really', he added silently, since transfiguration was one of the subjects he performed worse at. However, he'd be a fool to turn down an opportunity to make a good impression with one of his future professors especially, if the Jonathan and Samantha were to be believed, one with the caliber of Professor McGonnagal.

Minerva was almost floored with the announcement. She was familiar with the reputation her former classmates had accrued over the years. For them to offer an apprenticeship to this young man without even having his N.E.W.T.s yet was mindboggling.

Recognizing the inevitable interrogation Salvadore decided to cut her off before she could begin. "It's quite the long story professor, perhaps I can tell you some of it while we get the shopping done?" Flushing a little at the reminder of why she was there, Minerva quickly agreed setting out to retrieve his school supplies.

**The Burrow**

Hermione Granger was not having a good holiday. She had gone to The Burrow for two reasons. The first was of course to support Harry in his time of grief. She could only guess at the sorrow he was feeling and was personally hoping she'd never experience it for herself anytime soon. The second was a more personal reason. She was hoping to subtly let Ron know she was interested in a relationship with him.

While not happy at having so little time with their daughter, the elder Grangers eventually relented and allowed their daughter to remain with the Weasley family for the remainder of the summer after only a few weeks at home. Things were looking promising, in her opinion, in the first few days she had arrived. She had greeted Ron with a hug, causing him to flush as red as his hair, and had even managed to avoid any major arguments for the whole week she was there before Harry arrived. Never mind the fact that most of her time was spent with Ginny while Ron ran keeper drills in preparation for the next school year.

Then the O.W.L results had arrived. Despite the efforts of Harry and Ginny to change subjects, Ron had continuously brought up that while she was considered the brightest witch in her age and had earned the top spot for Hogwarts, she was second to someone who went a Ministry School. A school that didn't even offer all the classes that Hogwarts did, a school where earning an A was all that was expected of students, a school that her and her parents had classified as substandard.

While she was hoping the reminders were unintentional, they hurt. In her eyes, her only redeeming quality was her intelligence. The fact that someone from THAT system had outscored her shook her confidence to its core. That of course made her focus on the E she received in DADA. That had to have been it. Divining that she obviously did not study enough she pulled books from her trunk and was determined to figure out all that she must not have covered the previous year.

Ron of course thought she had gone mental. "What are you studying for? We just finished our O.W.L. year, we didn't even get homework since our classes next year depended on our results. We got the whole summer to enjoy ourselves!" was his argument. Which was inevitably followed by his musings of "I wonder how that kid managed the #1 spot, can't imagine anyone sane spending so much of their free time studying that much".

Feeling it would be rude to bite his head off in his own home she resigned herself to just not talking to him for the past week. Harry had attempted to keep Hermione company but Ron would inevitably ask for his help with Quidditch practice. Harry would often relent lest everyone deal with a sulking Ron. This had garnered the unintended consequence of getting to know Fleur better. Seeing Hermione alone while the other three were outside flying she had decided to approach her. Fleur was worried that she would never be fully accepted by Weasly matriarch and had asked for advice.

The vulnerability displayed by Fleur had washed away many of Hermione's misconceptions about the French veela. While they weren't close (yet) she couldn't help but wonder if this was what it was like to have a big sister. At a minimum it helped to have someone additional to talk to besides boys (Ginny) and Quidditch (Ron and Harry). Now if only she could figure out how to get Ron to stop getting that glazed look when Fleur was around and she'd call it a good turn around.

The booklists came out the other day and today was the day to hit Daigon Alley. Ron, to her pleasant surprise, was chosen for 6th year prefect again along with her. When they found out she caught his eye and shared a smile. While she wasn't counting on much to happen the rest of the time at the Burrow, especially after her silent treatment of him, she was hoping that she would get the opportunity during prefect rounds during the school year. The boy was absolutely maddening at times. She mused that perhaps a conversation with Fleur in the future would be in order.

Arriving at Diagon Alley the group decided to get their shopping done, after paying the obligatory and much anticipated visit to the twins joke shop. Hermione spotted Professor McGonnagal outside of Madam Malkins and made a beeline for her, followed by Harry, Ginny, and Ron. She had decided to ask some questions that had been plaguing her since her O.W.L results had arrived.

"Good afternoon professor, I don't think we've ever seen you in the alley this late in the summer. Is everything okay?" Hermione asked hoping her favorite professor had time for her questions.

"Good afternoon Ms. Granger, yes all is well. You are correct, of course, normally I would be in the castle preparing for the new year but we have a new transfer student this year and this was the only time I could arrange to meet him here for his supplies" the professor explained thinking this might also be a good time to introduce Mr. Thatcher to some of his future class if not housemates.

"Transfer student? From where?" Ron asked, intrigued that someone would be coming to Hogwarts who didn't arrive with during their first year like normal.

"From a Ministry school Mr. Weasley. The London campus if I recall correctly. He was awarded a Ministry Scholarship to complete his N.E.W.T.s at Hogwarts due to outstanding performance on O. last term. As a matter of fact he'll be joining your year for classes."

"So where is he professor?" was Ginny's question who, despite dating Dean, was wondering if the boy was cute.

The professor gestured them to the shop while saying "He's getting fitted for school robes right now, in fact you can see him through the windows" On instinct four heads turned to toward the shop to see a young man with shoulder length black hair pulling on his robes, obviously trying to make room around his chest and shoulders.

Hermione was looking at Salvador and wondered 'If he's been in school these few years, why does he look like he spends most of his time outside in the sun?' Mistaking her look for interest, Ginny cut in with "So you think he's pretty cute to huh?" adding a wink with her statement.

"Of course not!" Hermione rebuked, unable to keep her cheeks from flushing at the insinuation she turned to Professor Mcgonnagal, missing Ron turn to glare at the new student, and proceeded with her original intent for approaching. Having started a suspicion of just who had outranked her in the Ministry standings.

"Speaking of O.W.L.s professor" Hermione started, hoping the change in topic would release the blood from her cheeks. "Do you know how the Ministry rankings are calculated? I noticed that while I achieved to top of our class, that I was only second in the Ministry. While I don't think it's the case, it just wouldn't seem fair if the rankings were based on an overall average rather than some type of cumulative point scale I mean the Ministry schools don't even offer all the courses Hogwarts does."

Seeing an issue she could nip in the bud Professor Mcgonnagal calmly informed her favorite student "I can assure you Ms Granger, Mr. Thatchers' top ranking was very well deserved. It would not serve your own accomplishment justice to dwell on it. Trust me when I say that if I felt there was some sort of miscarriage done I would have been the first one at the ministry and transfigured them all the Newts until they corrected their mistake."

Catching on to her implication, for once, and shocked at its meaning Harry asked "Professor, are you telling us that Mr. Thatcher there managed to score 11 O's to beat Hermione despite not having all of the classes taught at his school?"

Seeing they were not going to let it go she braced herself for their likely reaction "No Mr. Potter, he scored 12 O's"

"WHAT!" was the simultaneous reaction from the four teens.


	5. Chapter 4

AN: The story continues. I actually have quite a few chapters already written but unfortunately I'm running into a bit of writers block. I'll post a few of the chapters in these next few weeks as I try to work through it.

Standard disclaimer, I own nothing.

**Diagon Alley**

Inside Madam Malkins, Salvadore was thinking back on his shopping experience. Overall he was pleased with just how much he was able to purchase with the vouchers. Professor McGonnagal had even allowed him to purchase potions ingredients and equipment so he could at least continue self-study and experimentation. After all, it would not be good to allow his potion making skills to degrade in the meantime.

He had gotten all of his course books and made maximum use of the six extra books allotted by the scholarship. If the professor had an issue with going to Scrolls and Tombs in Knockturn Alley to get '111 Lethal Ward Schemes and How to Break Them', 'Blood-Rituals: It's How to Make Your Magic Yours', and '1001 Curses, Jinxes, and Hexes You Can't Use in a Dueling Tournament But Wish You Could' she made no mention of it. He guessed letting her know that he was pursuing a career in curse breaking, to follow in the footsteps of his brother and the Skewers, belayed any worry she may have had. He had rounded his free books with 'Household Charms to Keep Handy', 'Helping Hands: A Guide for Animating the Inanimate', and 'Hogwarts: A History'. The last was just so he could learn about the place he'd spend the next couple of years in.

At the current time, he was diligently working with Madam Malkin to come to some sort of compromise on his robes. Simply put, they were getting in his way. Robes were not worn on site as per Jonathan and Samantha. They learned quickly that loose clothing were the number one hazard and detriment to a curse breakers health especially when inside a tomb. Far too often they had seen robes catch on protruding items when rounding a corner while running from a trap or seeing a wand catch on an ill-fitted sleeve when trying to fight off an ambushing predator while on a nightly security patrol. So the first camp rule that everyone had to learn when working with the Skewers was no robes.

It was Madam Malkins' opinion that one simply did not need to run, jump, duck, or climb over anything while in school robes. Salvadore countered with the hypothetical situation of running into a troll while using the loo. Snorting to herself in disbelief she eventually, if albeit grudgingly, complied. They were his robes after all.

While not completely satisfied with the finished result, Salvadore that the robes were the best he was going to manage from tailor. Stepping out of the shop he was unprepared for the 5 sets of eyes that turned to face him. Gauging from their looks, he wasn't quite sure what was going on, getting a different read from each of them.

From the petite readhead he saw appraisal, as if he were show dog being judged.

From the long-haired brunette…curiosity, like he were a puzzle waiting to be solved.

The tall red-head had a look of disbelief on him. Salvadore didn't know what he young man didn't believe but if it kept him off his back he wouldn't dissuade him from it unless it would ruin his reputation, it just wouldn't do to have rampant rumors making their way back to Jonathan and Samantha. The boy looked familiar for some reason though, something told him he wouldn't like finding out why.

The look that put him on edge was from the guy with black messy hair. He was being sized up. He didn't back down from the neighborhood bullies as a child, he didn't back from Chris and his goons as he hit his teens, he didn't back down from that vampire in the Incan temple last year and he sure as hell wouldn't back down from some rich kid with an attitude problem.

Locking on his gaze, Salvadore subtly shifted to allow for a quick draw of his wand if need be. The mutual appraisal was broken by Professor McGonnagal, who by the sound of her voice either hadn't noticed, hadn't cared, or had enough confidence in her abilities to handle two potentially unruly teenage boys.

"I trust that you are complete with all of your shopping Mr. Thatcher?" the professor said, drawing everyone's attention to her.

"Yes professor, thank you again for taking the time to do this with me today. It's most appreciated." He replied, keeping Harry in his peripheral vision.

"It was my pleasure Mr. Thatcher. While unexpected, please allow me to introduce several of your future classmates. Starting her fifth year is Ms. Ginerva Weasly" Professor McGonnagal said, gesturing the youngest of the group.

"Ginny" she cut in. Giving a small smirk as his hand enveloped hers in greeting.

Fighting a frown from appearing on his face, he accepted her hand and looked at each of the others in turn as the professor introduced them.

"Also in your year, her older brother Mr. Ronald Weasly…" "Ron" he said, offering a wave rather than a handshake while giving his sister a sideways glance, trying to figure out what was going on through his sisters' mind.

Salvadore nodded back. He knew they had to be related to Bill somehow. He had to get in contact with the elder redhead, and soon. He was coming to terms with his grief and while he wasn't quite over his anger, for his brother Steven, he'd make an effort. _Besides_ he reasoned _No point at being mad at someone who has no idea what's going on._

"Ms. Hermione Granger, our top student at Hogwarts. Though I expect you may be giving her a run for her money this year…" the stern professor said with a slightest smirk adorning the corner of her mouth. She would never admit it but she was glad that there was now a potential peer in the school that would push, even if indirectly, her favorite student academically rather than leaving her to pull her two male companions to keep pace with their studies.

Salvadore took her offered hand wondering if he just met a potential study partner or a contentious academic rival, not that he desired either. He got this far on his own, in a matter of speaking, and he would accomplish his goal on his own as well. Taking in all he saw, Salvadore labeled her as a daddies' girl, academically gifted but unused and probably unwilling to get in the dirt and work hard.

"And lastly Mr. Harry Potter…" "Pleased to meet you." Harry nodded his head toward Salvadore and offered his hand in greeting as if saying 'We have no quarrel'. Salvadore took the offered hand with a nod of his own. Finally knowing just who he was having the impromptu staring contest with, Salvadore surmised that Harrys' reputation was well deserved. He could see the fighter staring right back, he didn't know if Harry would ever be a friend but he knew from his brief encounter that he wouldn't want him as an enemy.

"I must be off to attend to my duties at Hogwarts Mr. Thatcher." The stern professor continued "Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger, Mr. and Ms. Weasley, I bid you a good afternoon. I will see you all on the first."

"Bye professor" The five echoed, falling into an awkward silence, one because, outside of their names, he didn't know them and the other four because they were still coming to terms with the accomplishment the newcomer had earned. Hermione decided to take the time to truly look at Salvadore. About 5'9, looked to be in excellent physical shape, judging from how his shirt hung around his shoulders and chest, long black hair pulled into a low hasty ponytail, and dark almost black eyes.

Seeing Hermione's viewing of Salvadore as interest, Ginny decided to 'help' her best friend. She saw the mutual interest between her brother and Hermione and reasoned that perhaps they needed a little bit of prodding. The direct approach was always met with denials on Rons' part, a change of subject on Hermiones', and followed by the eventual argument between the two when Ron would overcompensate or shoot off at the mouth ruining any chances between the two.

Hermione could not be manipulated. She was just too smart, she had to be reasoned with but that in itself was impossible if she wouldn't talk about it. Ron couldn't be reasoned with because he was too thick and stubborn. However, he could quite easily be manipulated in her opinion. Maybe just the thought of her going after someone else would prod him into action. Her path set she decided to follow through.

"So are you seeing anyone Salvadore?" Ginny said, while giving a not so subtle elbow and wink to Hermione.

Salvadore was unsure of what to make of the scene in front of him. Little Weasley had a smirk like the cat who caught the canary, big Weasley had a look of indignation, the girl called Hermione looked scandalized, while THE Harry Potter had a look of resignation on his face. Realizing he probably only had a short window of opportunity before any potential conversation got off track he decided to take his chance. "You wouldn't happen to know a William Arthur Weasley would you?" He inquired, trying not to betray any emotion in his voice.

Feeling a little on edge Ron wearily replied "Yeah, he's our brother, what's it to you?"

"I see…please pass a message for me" Salvadore said in a voice that didn't make it sound like much of a request. "Tell him Thatcher wants to settle accounts. The Leaky Couldron, seven 'o' clock, tomorrow night. No more chances" he continued without waiting for their affirmative. He knew it sounded like but he had no other way to put it that would meet his satisfaction. Besides, it was all he could do to keep his emotions in check. Despite what he knew now, despite his desires, he really did not feel ready for the upcoming confrontation. Nodding a quick goodbye he turned to leave only to held up by an arm grabbing his shoulder.

Looking back, Salvadore's eyes narrowed when he saw the offending object attached to Williams younger brother. "Was that a threat?! What's your problem with our brother!?" the redhead demanded before he felt his hand lose his grip and his body impact with the wall of the tailor shop. Trying to clear some stars from eyes from his head snapping back and hitting the wall as well, Ron froze as he felt a wand press under his chin.

"Leave your wands where they are or it will be William who learns what it's like to lose a brother this time." Salvadore said in a deadly calm voice, his thought raging in conflicting desires. The implication froze the remaining three in shock. They knew that curse breaking was a dangerous profession but for Bill to be responsible for a death…it was unfathomable.

Recognizing that the threat was enough to pacify the other three Salvadore focused back on Ron. In a tone that showed his anger as much as his posture, Salvadore addressed Ron "And here I thought such _esteemed _future members of Magical Briton would have had better manners. I guess they don't cover that much in Hogwarts do they? So to answer your question, Ronald, my business with William is simply not of your concern" he stated while digging his wand a little bit deeper. "If you really want to know what this is about, ask him."

With that, Salvadore shoved Ron toward his friends and sister. Facing them for a few moments to he backed away ensuring they wouldn't try anything before turning around and walking away. Rubbing, where he felt the wand pressing against his neck Ron could only think of one thing to say "Bloody hell, what was that all about? And why didn't you guys help me!?"

"Sorry mate, we didn't exactly know you were going to charge him did we?" said Harry, wanting to ask Bill himself but realizing that it probably not his place to do so.

"What do you mean 'you didn't know', he threatened Bill, what else was I suppose to do?" Ron stated with conviction.

Hermione countered his argument with logic as she was wont to do "Honestly Ron, if he was threatening Bill why would he ask to meat in a public place? And toward the end of the dinner rush as well. Everyone would see if he were to attack."

Not wanting to lose the head of steam that he'd found himself with Ron turned to Ginny "And you! What's with this are you single rubbish. You're with Dean aren't you?" He accused, not realizing that Ginny's subtle machinations were ruined at the moment.

Unfortunately Ginny's natural reaction to an irate Ron was to get right back in his face. "I wasn't asking for me you git. I was asking for Hermione, your single friend." She pressed on, completely ignoring Hermiones' indignant 'Ginny'. "I thought she could use a boyfriend this year. Just being around you two all the time has got to wear on anyone's patience." She said, smirking at the slight blush that was starting to form on her best friends cheeks.

"Why would he be interested in her?" Ron replied with a baffled look on his face, completely missing the hurt look on Hermione.

"Oh come off it Ron, just because you're still stuck in the 'girls are icky' phase 3 years too late doesn't mean everyone else is. I'm with Dean, Harry took Cho out last year, and even Hermione snogged Krum the year before. The only one that hasn't done anything with anyone is you" Ginny argued, forgetting her original intentions in the midst of yelling.

"Stop lying, we both know Hermione wouldn't do that" was his counter argument. Ron was feeling quite accomplished with his reasoning until he heard Hermione speak in a tone that never boded well for him.

"Just because you don't find me attractive Ron doesn't mean that others won't!" Hermione cut in, turning around before her tears could be noticed she marched back in Diagon Alley to inform the elder Weasleys' they were done with shopping and ready to go.

"Nice going you git! Hermione wait up!" Ginny followed up, adding a punch to his stomach for good measure. She'd have rather hexed him but realized she would only get herself in trouble since they weren't at Hogwarts yet.

Realizing he'd be sporting a bruise later he turned to Harry and tried to clear up his own confusion "What'd I say?"

Feeling like hitting Ron himself, Harry took a deep breath and replied "One of these days Ron, you're going to stick your foot in it so deep that none of us are going to be able to help you, assuming that we'd even want to at that time." giving Ron a pointed look before he turned around to catch up with the girls.

"Bloody mental the lot of them are" Ron muttered, following Harry to meet up with the girls and his parents.


	6. Chapter 5

If I owned the works of these respective authors I probably wouldn't be writing fanfiction. Writty purely for pleasure.

**The Leaky Cauldron**

Bill Weasley was not looking forward to this meeting. It wasn't that he was afraid, he was reasonable sure violence wouldn't be involved. No, it was because he still hadn't gotten the guild of the incident himself. Sitting at the bar, Bill was doing everything he could to keep from dwelling on the last few years.

Bill knew he was a good curse breaker. He had a promising career ahead of him but thankfully, some smart people had pointed out that he was starting to become difficult to work with. He had to get out of the field less an expedition team seal him in a tomb themselves and leave him behind.

When he had heard from his father about the Order reforming, Bill jumped at the chance. Granted he probably would have transferred to the London Gringotts bank just for the Order but this way gave him the chance to leave expeditions for a little while at least. It certainly didn't hurt that he had met Fleur along the way either.

Despite it all, it was only his father that knew he had a secondary reason for coming back to Briton. Arthur Weasley was many things. Unobservant was not one of them. He pulled Bill into the shed on his first day off and wrangled the truth out of him. Arthur didn't offer advice, nor words of platitude. When Bill looked up from telling his tale he half expected to see a look of disappointment on his fathers' face.

Instead he saw a resigned acceptance and most importantly unconditional support. Arthur knew what his eldest son would face as a curse breaker. He was hoping his son would miss some of the harsher realities of their world but it was just not to be. All Arthur could do was give him support and offer a place to heal.

However, now, thanks to Ron and Ginny, the whole family, save for Charlie and Percy, knew the story.

**The Burrow, previous evening**

The Burrow was unusually quite when the family had returned from Diagon Alley. Hermione had made a beeline for had become her study spot in the sitting room with a look on her face that said Ron had done something, again. Interestingly enough she was joined shortly by Fleur and the two dissolved into a quiet conversation after Fleurs' application of silencing charms. Harry had gone out for some quick flying while Ron and Ginny, oddly enough, had banished themselves to their rooms until dinner.

Dinner had felt tense. Hermione was talking quietly with Fleur, a site he was becoming accustomed to. While curious about what brought them together, he was glad that his fiancée had found someone to talk and confide in. He knew things were not ideal for her here at the Burrow but there wasn't a whole lot he could do to change Ginny's and his mother's attitudes. The twins halfheartedly tried to break the tension with jokes but realized that whatever it was causing the thick atmosphere was beyond their ability to fix.

Ron and Ginny looked subdued, Bill was making a mental note to ask them if they were alright after dinner when Ron's voice cut through. "Bill, do you know a Salvadore Thatcher?" Bill froze, spoon halfway to his mouth. Shocked at the mention of the name Bill tried to compose himself as he answered the sudden question "Yes I do, I knew his brother better but yes, I know him, why? How do you know him?"

"He's going to Hogwarts this year, we met him while doing our shopping." Ron answered looking troubled after the mention of Salvadores' brother.

"He wants to meet with you, tomorrow night at seven in the Leaky Cauldron." Ginny cut in. Looking like she were trying to muster up the courage for something.

Not liking where this was heading Bill pressed on "Did he give a reason?"

Visibly struggling, Ron answered "He said he wanted to settle accounts…did you really kill his brother?"

The entire table was shocked save for Bill and his father. Bill spared Arthur a glance and at his nod decided to fill his family in on some of his experience in Egypt.

"It's…complicated and a bit of a long story." He said with a remorseful tone, remembering the man who had saved him from his own inexperience on more than one occasion. "Best to tuck in while I tell it, don't want the food to get cold do we?"

"Steven Thatcher was a mentor of sorts when I started with Gringotts. He was something like an independent contractor. Don't get me wrong, when it came to magic Gringotts training is more than enough to get started, but life in the camps is a little different. Steven was called in to work on my first expedition and took me under his wing. Taught me the ins' and outs' of the trade so to speak." Bill looked around seeing everyone's rapt attention on him.

He knew he'd have a conversation with Fleur about this later but realizing that it was too late to worry about it he pressed on "He's actually the one who got me to grow my hair out and gave me the ear ring." He said, smirking at his mothers' frown. "Said it was because I didn't look dangerous enough to be breaker." He smiled at the scattered chuckles that came from around the table.

"I actually met Salvadore at the same time. He was a regular at the camps. Steven would bring him along on almost all his jobs." He braced himself for the interruption from his mother who didn't disappoint.

"Of all the irresponsible…where were his parents?" Molly asked. She was shocked that anyone would take a child to a curse breaking site.

"Steven was raising Salvadore by that time. Never got the full story but I do know that their parents had passed by that time. Salvadore usually stuck to camp, doing inventory and helping with the camp maintenance." Bill was careful not to mention the reason Salvadore stayed in the camps was so he could learn magic using old textbooks and one of the many spare wands usually the other breakers would lend him less his mother interrupt with a rant about the impropriety of children learning magic outside of school.

"So what happened to Steven? If he was your mentor, what happened? OW!" came from Ron. Shouting as Ginny kicked his shin under the table for his impatience and insensitivity.

Shooting his youngest brother a glare Bill continued. "It was in the summer of '92. We were on a dark job breaking a tomb from a real nasty necromancer. He actually used his death to set the wards around his tomb, real piece of work. Normally, we'd take a few months to study and break the wards like that but we were under a time constraint."

"What's a dark job? And what made this site different from others where you couldn't take your time?" This from the ever curious Hermione. Bill was glad for the question. It gave him the opportunity to give some more information on the circumstances surrounding Stevens' death.

"A dark job" Bill explained "is a high risk, high reward expedition. It never makes the books because the costs would be too high. To offset the costs the contracting party usually pays a death gratuity to the team upfront and only reserves a few specific items, in this case they were two Goblin imbued sword the necromancer was rumored to have, and leave the rest to the team. On these types of jobs the team would normally sell the non-magical items, split the bounty and devide the magical items among the breakers."

"As for the time constraints…well, basically the tomb would disappear if we didn't get through the wards in time and we wouldn't get another shot for 500 years." Seeing their stunned looks, Bill explained.

"The necromancer actually made a miscalculation when setting a type of _Fidelius _on his tomb. The wards were powered by the moonlight. However, his mistake was that there was a cycle of diminishing returns on the charging. Eventually the wards degrade enough to where during a lunar eclipse the wards would break on their own for a time. Since the rune stones would still be in place the wards would eventually reform back to full strength. So it would only be for that short period of time that we'd have to work. Tell me Hermione, with an environmentally charged ward scheme, how long do you have for the ambient magic to charge the wards?" He asked .

"Two weeks." She answered remembering distinctly the very same question asked on her Ancient Runes O.W.L. "Give or take a day depending on the scheme and power source, given the time frame I would like to hope you all knew what to expect to get in and out quickly"

"Not Exactly" Bill said, flashing her an impressed smile. "To complicate matters we only found out about the tomb from some texts we found in another temple about a month prior. Apparently some ancient priests had been looking for his temple to exorcise it but missed they're opportunity. Their order had died out before they could pass on the information. Even then, the only thing we knew was the location and the circumstances that would reveal it."

Closing his eyes, Bill braced himself to finish the story "Steven was brilliant, he was trained by the best and it showed. I wanted to identify and break the _Fidelius _scheme so we could take our time with the rest. It sounded like a good idea until he saw the layout of the rune stones. He saw that if we went for that it would have caused the whole tome and probably the cliffside it was located in to implode and taking all of us with it. In three days he found the keystone that would cause all the wards to collapse. After solving how to get to the thing without killing ourselves we had to figure out how to break it."

"This one was unique in that it was being powered directly by two different sources. The incident happened on the last day to try and break the wards. We had tried twice before with…interesting results. We adapted our strategy and started to break the wards when it happened. The power feeds were my responsibility, after verifying the power wasn't going to the wards I gave him the all clear to drain the ambient power left in the wards."

"I don't know what happened. Right as the wards were about to drop there was a power surge. I ran to check the power feeds but I didn't get there in time. Next thing I know there was an explosion and I'm waking up in our medical tent. We never found Steven's body. We packed up his belongings and his share of items to give to Salvadore."

"Not knowing where he lived I went to the Ministry school he attended. Steven wasn't expecting success so he didn't bring him along. When I told him what had happened…he just stared at me. I was expecting him to start throwing hexes, scream, hit me, something! I could tell that he wanted to…but he just sat there and glared. Then he just turned around and left the room. That was the last time I saw him."

"That poor dear. I'm so glad that you've found yourself a proper job now Bill. But don't think we won't be having a talk about you understating what you've been doing young man." Molly said, torn between crying at Salvadore's loss and chastising her son.

"So you think he blames you for not cutting the power sources properly?" asked Harry, being able to relate to the fellow orphan.

"Can't say I blame him. I've gone over my notes of that day and even pensieved my memory over a hundred times since then. I can't find what I did wrong but obviously something did or that power surge wouldn't have happened. I honestly don't know what he has in mind for tomorrow but I'm not ruling out a formal challenge" He answered honestly. Bill knew if the circumstances were reversed that's exactly what would be going through his head.

"He can't do that!" Ginny shouted. "It wasn't your fault, he can't do that" She continued, getting distraught over the thought of her brother getting a duel to the death.

"I can't honestly say that I did nothing wrong Ginny. He's well within his rights to demand it if he feels it's justified." said Bill while trying to give a reassuring smile to his fiancée.

Hearing a disbelieving snort everyone looked to Ron who vocalized his thought process "Don't get your knickers in a twist Ginney, I mean they guy's our age, how dangerous could the bloke be? I mean Harry might give Bill a run but this guy went to a Ministry school. Books can only take you so far."

Deciding to help his younger brother out before he bit off more than he could chew with the younger Thatcher, Bill filled the family in on Salvadore "It's that kind of thinking that will get you put in the hospital wing Ron. I warn you now. Don't trifle with him. He'd been learning from his brother since I first met him. While I may not have seen him I have kept tabs on him. He was taken up by a married pair of curse breakers who trained his brother. Trust me when I say that he's been trained by the best there is out there and with the library he'll have at his disposal...I'm not fancying the idea of facing him."

"What do you mean?" Ron asked, unsettled by Bills' lack of confidence.

"We're essentially tomb raiders Ron. I know for a fact that he got some pretty powerful tomes from the site his brother died at. His brother had gathered quite the collection of ancient books and tomes when I first met him. Some of it was historical, some on theory, and some that were dark enough to give you the willies just being around them. He garnered more when I knew him and when he died Salvadore inherited it all."

**The Leakey Cauldron: present time**

After assuring his family that Hogwarts would not allow a dark wizard to attend classes, he hoped, Bill went about comforting his understandably upset fiancée. He cursed that he had the next day off as well, leaving him with nothing to do but wonder about the meeting and reassuring the important women in his life.

Breaking from his musings, he turned as he felt someone sit beside him. Seeing Salvadore for the first time in years Bill almost audibly gulped. The familial resemblance was there. If physical stature was a measure of power Salvadore was just as powerful a wizard as his brother, if not more so. Seeing Salvadore wasn't going to start soon, Bill returned to his drink waiting for the discussion to begin.

"I hated you" Salvadore stated. The voice lacked the baritone of his brother but deep nonetheless. Not knowing how to reply Bill took another drink and waited for him to continue.

"I must have gone a year reading through Steven's library looking for the best ways to kill you before I was calm enough to look through the dig notes." He heard. Bill was getting more than a little unnerved at the calm voice the younger Thatcher was using.

"You're not an idiot or my brother wouldn't have brought you along. That tells me that what you did to cut off the power supply worked and you did it right, they would have held through the entire process. However, that doesn't explain what happened." And that was the heart of the matter that had twisted Bills' insides with guilt these past few years.

"Jonathan and Samantha took me to the site last year to see if we could figure out what happened, finally." Bill wasn't sure what to expect now. While confident in his abilities he was dreading they would have found fault in his actions.

"It took some effort getting access to the site, the muggle agency that took over the dig has become rather strict on minors crawling around 'their' site. We managed to get a map of the hallways and rooms." Handing a piece of paper over to Bill, Salvadore asked "Tell me, what do you see?"

His curiosity piqued, Bill took the map and unfolded it to figure out what Salvadore was talking about. After a few minutes of turning the familiar drawing around to view it from every angle, it clicked "Bloody hell!" was all he could say.

While they couldn't have known it at the time, the Necromancer had carved out a three dimensional rune for 'Energy' into the cliff and simply moved in. The tomb itself was a power source for the ward scheme. The only way they could have countered that was if they carved out the whole tomb from the cliff and planted their own rune stones around it. Not something that could have been done in two weeks without knowing beforehand just what they were facing.

"That was the Skewers reaction too. I only recognized it because I was doing my own rune project and that bad boy was playing an important role." Salvadore explained, remembering his time developing his kinetic rings. "It wasn't until they let me know that they were glad they weren't taking any jobs at the time cause they would have fallen for it too did I put together just how much of an impossible situation you guys were in. You guys never stood a chance"

"I just wanted to let you know that I don't blame you. Not anymore anyway. Granted, I spent a little too much time hating you to just let everything be sunshine and daisies but I hold no ill will toward you" Salvadore offered his hand as he finished his statement.

Bill wasted no time taking the offered hand and even went so far as to pull the younger man into a hug. "Sorry about that" Bill said with a sheepish smile "It's just that I've thought about that day for a while. It's driven me mental trying to figure out what went wrong. Seeing this" he said gesturing to the map "it just brings it all together"

Letting out a sigh Bill pressed on. "I'll never be able to explain just how sorry I am that we lost Steven." Reaching for his earring, Bill pulled it off and handed it Salvadore. "We never found a body to be buried but here. He gave it to me on my third dig. Something to remember him by"

Looking at the offered item then back at Bill, Salvadore chuckled before handing it back. "No thanks, you still don't look tough enough and you're going to need all the help you can get. Besides, I got his trunk and pictures."

Laughing and giving Salvadore a slap on the back Bill bought the next round of drinks. The two traded their favorite Steven Thatcher stories for the next few hours until they begged off, promising to keep in touch. Salvadore went to pack his last few items getting ready for his first day of Hogwarts and Bill went to reassure his fiancée that no blood feuds were incoming and their wedding could proceed as planned.


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: None of this is mine other than the plot idea. Please enjoy.

**Daigon Alley**

Salvadore stared at the beast. He had gone to the alley in the morning just to grab some extra parchment and some specialized quills when he was ambushed. The monster had locked in on him as soon as he came into view. He didn't notice until he was in striking range and then it was too late.

He stared at it trying to kill it with his glare. "Not gonna happen!" he proclaimed. He firmed his resolve while he waited for the beasts' response.

"Mew"

"Dammit" he swore knowing he never stood a chance. He had strayed a little too close to the pet shop when patchwork colored cat had caught his eye. After noticing that she had an admirer the cat sauntered over to Salvadore and presented herself to be picked up. In less than a minute of heated debate vs mews Salvadore went to pay for the diabolical beast.

After a surprisingly easy time coaxing her into a carrier laden with food and water he thanked the shop keeper and set off to his original destination. He didn't want a pet yet, especially since he didn't even have a home to live in at the moment but he knew better than to fight against certain circumstances in the magical world.

Packing his belongings into what was his brother's trunk he picked up the newly named 'Kat' and set off for the Hogwarts Express. Finding the proper platform was fairly simple. After admiring the train for a couple of minutes Salvadore set off to find his seat.

Entering the first empty compartment he found Salvadore pulled out some books, stored his trunk, and released Kat for a stretch. Reasoning that no one would sit with an unfamiliar upperclassman, he stretched himself out on the seat allowing his new feline companion to curl up on his lap.

The realtor was still trying to sell his parents home, he had a potential buyer but they wouldn't be able to officially start the paperwork until the end of the year sometime. Salvadore gave the realtor the contact information to a Gringotts dummy corporation that could get in contact with him while at Hogwarts. The service would take a little bit more off the top of profits from the sale but he didn't have much other choice in the matter.

**Kings Cross Station**

The remainer of Ron's holiday was not going well. The first part was brilliant. He was getting along better with Hermione. He was even thinking that maybe he'd get to ask her out while at the Burrow. Then the O.W.L results came and she spent all of her time revising all of her notes. 'What kind of girl spends all her time revising when there's perfectly good Quiditch weather outside' were his thoughts on the matter.

He couldn't go up to her to talk because one; she'd bite his head off for interrupting her, 'though Harry never seemed to experience that problem' he groused and two; Fleur had started spending more time around her and he still hadn't figured out how to function around her. There was a glimmer of hope when they shared a smile upon learning they were both made prefects after their shopping trip she had yet to speak to him. 'Don't know why she's mad at me' he thought 'I was the one that was thrown against the wall'.

After separating from Harry, Ron and Hermione made their way to the prefect meeting. Noticing that Hermione was still ignoring him Ron thought of ways to get back in her good graces. He reasoned he could apologize after the term started, when there weren't so many people around. He wasn't quite for what he'd be apologizing for, but it usually did the trick.

Realizing that they still had rounds to do Ron reasoned that if it looked like he was taking his prefect duties more serious this year, it would help put him in a better light. Thinking his path was set he started looking around for any infractions he could call people out on.

Salvadore was in the middle of a very interesting chapter when a voice broke his musings.

"You!"

Looking up, he recognized the larger Weasley and the brunette from Diagon Alley. Not liking the look on the redheads face he quietly palmed his wand.

"Can I help you?" Was his only reply, trying to keep his face impassive.

"I don't know what your problem in but if got a problem with my family you got a problem with me!" Ron nearly bellowed. He had tried to fix Salvadore with what he thought was an intimidating glare but the dark haired youth didn't seem intimidated.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Care to enlighten me?" Salvadore asked. Trying to puzzle out what the conversation was about. The only thing he could think of was that either Bill didn't say anything about their meeting or his younger brother was too hotheaded to believe him. The brunette looked like she was about to cut in before Ron cut her off.

"Bill told us what happened. It wasn't his fault. Just because he doesn't want us getting involved doesn't mean my family is going to let him go it alone." He proclaimed, completely forgetting Bills' warning about Salvadore from the other night.

"Ron!" Hermione yelled, finally interrupting the hothead. "Bill came back fine and said to leave it alone, let's just go and finish our rounds." She grabbed his arm to try and pull him away but was shrugged off.

"He's just trying to protect us. I'm not about to let some wannabe dark tosser study dark magic under my nose." Reading 'Blood Magic' in the title of a book on the bench he continued "I'm a prefect and I'm confiscating that book. _Accio…"_ Ron tried to summon the book to him as the first piece of evidence to turn in to the Headmaster to try and get Ministry transfer student expelled but was interrupted by a banishing spell that sent him into the opposing wall.

Shaking his head to refocus Ron quickly scanned for his wand only to find it in Salvadore's left hand pointed at Hermione while Salvadore's right hand held his own pointed at Ron. Hermione was torn, on the one had she wanted to go for her wand but on the other she already had a wand trained on her. She reasoned that since Salvadore had incapacitated Ron with silent spell casting, it was not out of the realm of possibilities that he could cast from two wands at once. Decidinig that caution was the better part of valor in this scenario she pulled her hand away from her wand and took a step back with her hands up.

Nodding in approval Salvadore turned his attention back to Ron. "I do believe you need to refresh yourself on the rules Mr. Prefect. You will _not _be taking my book and if you try anything like this again you will be reported to the Headmaster. Any business I have with your brother is just that, business with your _brother._ You feel the need to know what's going on ask him. Now leave."

"That book is dark if you think…" Ron started, only to be interrupted by Hermione "He's right Ron, books are considered a part of family magic. They can't be confiscated it says so in 'Hogwarts: A History'."

Realizing he had no legs to stand on Ron slowly made his way up, completely aware that Salvadore kept his wand trained on him the whole time. Keeping his eyes down Ron extended his hand.

"If you think I'm going to shake your hand after that display you've got another thing coming." Salvadore snarked.

Ears turning red, Ron clarified his actions "I'm not trying to shake your hand I want my wand back!"

Salvadore shot him a puzzled look which turned to incredulous when he realized Ron was being serious. "Merlin, after meeting the two of you I'm not sure who fell furthest from the tree. I'm hoping it wasn't him cause personally, I really don't like the thought of more like you out there breeding." Hermione gasped at the insult, yes Ron and Bill seemed to only have their physical characteristics to show they were related but it was quite the low blow.

"Additionally…" Salvadore pressed on, seeing Rons' whole face start to turn red "if you think I'm going to hand back a wand to someone who just tried to _steal _my belongings, you're mental. You can pick it up from your head of house later. Now leave." With a flick of his wand the door closed in Rons' face.

Seeing Ron just standing there Hermione reached out to him "Are you okay Ron?" She may have been mad at him but she didn't want to see him get hurt either. Turning him toward her she noticed his pale face.

"McGonnagal's going to kill me" was all he could say.

**Hogwarts**

After the confrontation Salvadore had to placate an upset Kat for disturbing her nap when he stood up to cast at Ron. It wasn't until he brought out the catnip filled squeaky toy that she seemed to forgive him. There were a couple of knocks on the door to the cabin but, with not knowing anyone on the train, he left the door closed.

Finally putting on his robes he coaxed Kat back into her carrier and sat waiting for their arrival at Hogsmeade. Garnering a few inquiring looks, and a couple appraising from some witches, he followed the throng of students off the train and onto the platform.

He was about to follow the students into the carriages when he spotted the large redhead and his friends walking toward the carriages themselves. He was debating the best course of action when he heard a booming voice coming from further down the platform.

"Firs' years o'er here. Firs' years" came from a mountain of a man. Considering himself a first year he made his way over to bellower and introduced himself.

"Evening sir, Salvadore Thatcher, transfer student, is this how we get to the castle?" He inquired, hoping the giant of a man didn't send him to the carriages.

"Transfer student y'say? Han't seen one o' you in quite a few years. Go on ahead 'n climb in. This'll take ya' to the castle sure as an'thing else. Oh, me names Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of keys, Groundskeeper, and Professor for Care of Magical Creatures 'ere at Hogwarts. Pleasure meeting ya." Hagrid answered with a giant smile adorning his face.

Getting a sense that he would like this man, Salvadore extended his hand in greeting, allowing his hand to be swallowed by the jolly giant standing in front of him. Looking up he saw that the redhead was gesturing his way with a smirk on his face. Salvadore surmised that he was making a joke about him traveling with the other first year students. Seeing the female prefect roll her eyes in response, she struck him as rather mature, confirmed it for him.

Deciding that he'd might as well play the part of the heel, Salvadore withdrew both his and Rons' wand and raised them in a gesture of salute toward the redhead. Seeing the desired reaction of the smirk turning into a scowl with his ears turning red put a smirk on his face. He just hoped that he would be able to avoid the man less this turn into a very long two years.

Finally arriving at the castle and helping the gaggle of giggling firsties out of the boat, Salvadore had to admit that the view was impressive. Despite the descriptions from his classmates older siblings, nothing compared to seeing the castle in person. Seeing Professor McGonnagal step out in her role as Deputy Headmistress, Salvadore decided to get the unpleasantness over with.

"Professor do you have a moment before we begin? There's…an issue I'd like to get resolved sooner rather than later." he asked.

Unused to being interrupted before getting started she sent a look to Salvadore before replying "Of course Mr. Thatcher how can I help?"

After explaining his encounter on the train, he pulled out Ron's wand and handed it to the professor who's lips seemed to get thinner as the tale went on. "I was hoping you could hand this to the head of Gryffindor house and explain the circumstances."

"Of course Mr. Thatcher. Rest assured the matter will be dealt with appropriately. 5 points to your future house for proper procedural conduct" She said, her lips forming into almost a thin straight line.

After explaining the structure of the houses the group made their way in. More than a few first years were enraptured by the charmed ceiling.

"If I may have everyone's attention" The Headmaster said from his position at the head table. "It has been many years since our halls were graced with a student who has shown such promise as to earn a Ministry Scholarship. It has been even longer since such an honor was earned by a muggle born. It is my pleasure to introduce Mr. Salvadore Thatcher." A small round of applause circulated throughout most of the hall. Nobody noticed the looks of recognition and one of interest coming from a select few on the Slytherin table.

"As is custom" Professor Dumbledore continued "Mr. Thatcher will be sorted first. Best of luck to you Mr. Thatcher, your new house will be gaining a most impressive student."

Salvadore was a little unnerved with all the attention on him as he made his way up front. He earned some chuckles as he first stared at the small stool and sent a raised eyebrow to Professor McGonnagal while shaking his head. Skipping the stool, he turned to face the rest of the students while the Sorting Hat was placed on his head.

'Very interesting Mr. Thatcher. I've not had the pleasure of sorting an individual such as yourself in a few years'. Slightly astonished at the voice he heard he stayed silent, getting a little nervous as he remembered one of the rules Jonathan and Samantha had drilled into him, '_If you can't see where it's brain is and it's not suppose to talk, it's not suppose to exist, so back off and re-evaluate what you're dealing with_'. The only thing that kept him from throwing the hat off his head and drawing his wand was the fact that there were several dozen first years behind him about to go through the same thing.

'You are certainly a driven individual, not afraid of hard work, loyal to your friends and family, and a thirst for knowledge to top it off.' He heard, idly wondering if he'd be hearing his whole personality profile from the aged hat. 'No need to worry about that young man. We don't have that long after all. Now where to put you…' As the hat debated with itself Salvadore couldn't help but with it would just get it over with so he could go sit down. 'Oh, I'd say that settles it' the hat added with a humored tilt in its voice. 'You'll definitely do well in' "Gryffindor!"

Salvadore let out a sigh as congratulatory claps sounded through the hall. He looked over at the Gryffindor table and sure enough, there was the redhead trying to glare him to death and the brunette sitting across from him with an almost apologetic look on her face. Deciding that he really didn't want to deal with the eventual argument just yet, especially so close to dinner, he sat as far away from the duo as he could manage, ending up around some second and third year students.

After the first years had been sorted, the new teaching positions had been announced. Finding that there was a new potions professor had gained his interest. He made a note to talk to his Head of House, which he just found out was Professor McGonnagal, about adding potions to his course load. While he wasn't looking forward to class with Professor Snape, it couldn't be avoided as he needed the DADA N.E.W.T so his apprenticing with the Skewers was on the up and up.

Dinner was a relatively quite affair. Outside of the occasional question about where he was from and what the Ministry School was like the only thing that drew his attention was Harry coming in right before dessert. When dinner had finished Salvadore decided to delay the upcoming confrontation a little bit longer by walking with the just sorted first years on their way to the common room.

He didn't care if his dorm mates considered him rude by avoiding contact but he really didn't like getting in fights unless he had to, he was hoping the extra time would let the male prefect cool down and talk like a reasonable adult. Finally making it to the common room Salvadore braced himself for the wandless wizard. He was not disappointed.

"Where's my wand!?" said individual bellowed, his path to Salvadore cut off by his friends and dorm mates.

"I have it right here Mr. Weasley. Come with me." Everyone turned around as Professor McGonnagal made her presence known, standing behind all those who had just entered.

Salvadore thought the teen in question was going to faint with how fast the blood drained from his face. Shooting a scathing look in Salvadore's direction he followed his head of house out the common room to her office.

Hoping he could keep his interactions with the hot head to minimum he saw that the rest of the common room was looking at him with interest. Not wanting the eventual interrogation he gave a quick wave coupled with a "Nice meeting you all, see you in the morning" and made his way up the stairs to the boys dorm rooms.

He was grateful when Kat came out and led him to his bed, in his rush to get out of the room he failed to ask which dorm room was for the sixth years. He fished out his sleepwear and went to complete his usually nightly cleanup without any interruptions. Lying down for the night he set charms around the bed to not be disturbed. Remembering just who he was sharing a dorm with he set up some minor detection wards around his bed as well just in case said individual got any ideas.

He reminded himself before sleep claimed him that he wasn't there to make friends. He had specific plans and Hogwarts was just a means to achieve them. All he needed were his N.E. he told himself. He'd already gotten on the bad side of one dorm mate. His friends were sure to follow his example and shun him. How hard could it be to distance himself from the student population were his last thoughts as he drifted off to sleep while petting his feline companion.


	8. Chapter 7

AN: Actually got some people following this. Was not expecting that. I noticed some horrible grammer/punctuation mistakes in earlier chapters. I do aplogize for that. It made sense as I was writing it down is all I can say. I'll make an effort in the future to re-write/correct them. Again, I own not a bit but the order of of words in which they are written. Enjoy.

**Gryffindor Boys Dorm**

Salvadore woke up at his usually time of zero-dark-early. There were only so many hours in the day and he had a lot to do. After all, it wasn't like they let students run around with time-turners. After checking that there were no unexpected surprises around his bed he put on some exercise clothes, warded his sleeping area, and made his way outside. Kat had decided to follow him up until he found a nice path to run. Rather than follow, she contented herself so sit and watch as he ran around the Black Lake, followed by a routine of calisthenics.

Feeling suitably exercised, he and Kat made their way back to the common room for a shower before heading down to breakfast. Ignoring the pointed looks from a buxom blonde and her giggling friends, he made his way up the stairs. While not his intention, he did manage to overhear some conversation from his stall.

"You think Ron's right about him?" came a voice with an Irish accent.

"Don't know to be honest. McGonnagal certainly seemed more upset at Ron than Thatcher. That alone makes me think Ron might be exaggerating things" from another.

"That's true. Can't imagine the professor ignoring a supposed dark wizard just to rip into one of her prefects. Must have pissed her off quite a bit, sickle says he lost the badge." again from Irish.

"Deal, let's go and wait for him to come downstairs."

Salvadore debated telling the younger Weasley the contents of his conversation with Bill to mollify him. However, the other prefect revealed enough to surmise that Bill had quite politely said it was none of their business and Salvadore was inclined to agree. Deciding that his time was better spent getting ready for classes than thinking of redheads he went to get dressed.

It was obvious that he had interrupted a conversation as everyone had shut up when he stepped in. Ignoring them he went over to his trunk to get ready. He idly wondered if being glared daggers at was going to be the new norm before loading up his bag and heading to breakfast. He saw the brunette from the train in the common room, she looked like she wanted to say something but rather than acknowledge her he walked past her out of the common room.

"Did you see that?! Those scars!? Are you still going to be telling me he's not dark?" Ron said seeing the state of Salvadore's shoulder, chest, and back.

"I've got scars too Ron. Besides, Bill didn't seem too concerned" said Harry, trying to calm his friend from doing something foolish so soon in the year. While he'd been as concerned as Ron with Salvadore's original message, when Bill had returned he'd seemed at ease, grateful even, and told the rest of them to pay it no mind.

"Yours are different, and why does he have so many wands in his trunk? He's at least a thief. I don't trust him and I can't stand the fact that I have to share a room with him" Ron countered, noticing a row of 5 wands attached to the inside lid of Salvadore's trunk. They started making their way downstairs with Harry beginning to tune out the repetitive nature of Ron's rants that had started the night before as they made their way to the common room.

Hermione was quite put off at the rudeness displayed by Salvadore but considering the previous day she found it understandable. Seeing Harry and Ron make their way downstairs she went to them to see just what happened after their Head of House pulled Ron from the room.

"Are you okay Ron?" she asked, while maybe not completely forgiving him for his insensitivity over the summer she was still concerned.

"Yeah, I reckon so. I'm on probation though." He answered, ears turning pink as he remembered the tongue lashing she gave him.

"Probation? For what?" came from Harry. Having only heard about the 'attack' on the train from Ron's point of view, he couldn't figure out what he'd be on probation for.

Ron thought back to the stern professor's words in her office:

'_I absolutely refuse to believe that a sixth year prefect from my house would be foolish enough to be unfamiliar with the rules of the school! So I can only conclude that that you were abusing the authority that has been bestowed on you! I will take into account the circumstances but be aware Mr. Weasley you are on probation as a prefect. One more incident or any conduct unbecoming on your part and you will be stripped of you badge and let you be the one to inform your mother. Do I make myself clear!?_

"I'd rather not talk about it" he said as his ears started turning red.

Harry looked to Hermione to see if she would shed any light on the subject. To Ron's appreciation she only grimaced at the memory and shook her head to let Harry. Being used to being the subject of rumors Harry recognized the signs that there was more to the story than what was letting on. Hermione's silence with the worrying of her lip let him know that Ron had apologized sometime on the train and she was trying to keep the relative peace.

Harry wondered if it would be worth it to try and get to know the new sixth year. He was reminded somewhat of a first year Hermione but more driven and definitely less social. Out respect to his friendship with Ron he wasn't going to push the matter. He also remembered what Ron was like with Krum in their fourth year and had no desire to bring that into the Gryffindor tower again.

When they got to the Great Hall, the three of them noticed Salvadore speaking to their head of house. Seeing the professor agree with whatever he had said, she went ahead and made a change to his schedule before he grabbed some toast and made his way out.

When she made her way over the trio, Hermione had the foresight to ask about what they had seen "Professor, what was the change you made to Mr. Thatcher's schedule?" Quirking an eyebrow at her top student's formality toward a peer, she quickly schooled he features before answering. "He was merely adding a course Ms. Granger. Considering the course load the two of you are carrying, might I recommend conferring with him about a study schedule? I would hate to see either of my most ambitious students fall behind"

Sending a questioning look at her favorite professor, Hermione noticed her first class was right after breakfast, grabbed her bag and set off for Ancient Runes. Making her way into the class she wasn't too surprised to see Salvadore already sitting up front. Deciding that it was upon her to try and reverse the impression Ron must have left on the new student she decided to introduce herself properly.

"Is this seat taken?" She asked noticing his book on ward schemes.

Looking up at her, he turned back to his book and answered "No."

"I'm not sure you remember me, we met in Diagon Alley and unfortunately on the train" she said the second instance with a small grimace. "I'm Hermione Granger." She finished as she let out her hand in greeting. She couldn't help but notice his slightly annoyed breath as he didn't even look in her direction and offered a small wave. "Salvadore Thatcher."

Slightly miffed at the rebuke of her greeting but reasoning it must be because of the train incident, she pressed on. "I'm sorry about Ron's reaction on the train. He's just worried about his family with everything going on."

"Understandable." He replied in the same disinterested tone.

"Is that all?" She asked as she was getting annoyed at his apparent lack of manners, she was trying to apologize here.

"Apparently" He said in the same disinterested tone.

"I realize that you have a right to be upset at Ron and myself but I'm trying to apologize here and to be frank you didn't exactly give a good first impression yourself so there's no reason to be rude" she let out not realizing that she was drawing attention to herself from the other early arrivals.

He spared a glance at the sixth year prefect before returning to his book and replying "Ms Granger. The simple fact of the matter is that I don't care. My business with Bill Weasley was just that, as far as I'm concerned that business is concluded and everyone can move on. I realize that you're loyal to your friends that you've known for five years while I'm an interloper into your privileged little world. I'm here for one purpose and one purpose only…to achieve my N.E. . If this sudden interest is due to me being at odds with your boyfriend then just tell him to leave me alone and I'll leave him alone."

Seeing her blush at that last bit and getting ready to reply he decided to interject "If it will end this particular conversation, fine, apology accepted. I'm sorry I threw your boyfriend out of my compartment. Happy?" While he was hoping that it would be enough to halt the conversation he was disappointed.

"He's not my boyfriend!" She blurted out completely disregarding the 'apology' Salvadore had offered.

"Then he's a damn fool" He let out before realizing what he was going to say.

"Ms. Granger please take your seat and we'll begin" Fortunately Professor Babbling cut in before Hermione could interrogate him about what he might have meant by that. He felt even more fortunate as the workload being offered seemed to help her completely forget his comment by the time the class had ended.

Making sure he copied the homework correctly and gathering the books they had to read for homework he started to pack his satchel when Hermione's voice rung out. "How are you fitting all your books in there?"

"Bottomless back with a feather-light charm attached. Made it over the summer after I got my letter, figured it would come in handy" He said as he swung the strap over his neck. "Would you mind telling me where the Defense classroom is? I have to go there next."

"Not at all, I'll walk you there, I have the same thing. I hope I'm not asking for too much but umm…would you mind showing me how to do that to my bag? I tend to carry a lot of books and it would probably come in handy as well" She asked, hoping that despite the bad start that he would teach her that particularly useful piece of magic.

"Sure" he acquiesced much to her surprise. Looking over at her walking with her arms laden with the books, his mothers and brothers lessons in chivalry kicked in. "Here, put your books in here, I can hand them back to you whenever we split for classes."

Slightly taken aback considering his rude tone earlier she accepted his offer. A couple of conversational questions later they discovered that they shared all of their classes. Hermione was only slightly surprised that someone was taking as many classes as her but when she remembered that Salvadore had done better than her on O. she admitted to herself that it really wasn't that surprising.

Salvadore was pleasantly surprised that the girl seemed level headed. Though he did concede to himself that his only impression of her were not ideal situations around her non-boyfriend. He asked her some basic questions about their mutual professors and head of house and later about the location of the library and owlery so he could send a letter to the Skewers. She promised to show him later as she needed to send a letter to her parents as well.

She was in the middle of explaining some of the quirks he'd eventually run into in the school when Ron and Harry showed up at the Defense classroom. "What are you doing here!" Ron practically yelled as he stopped and started to glare at Salvadore. Harry put his hand on Ron's shoulder hoping it would be enough to keep his friend calm.

"He's going to Defense class obviously Weasel. Here I would have thought even you'd be happy to see someone poorer than you" Came from Malfoy who was sporting a look of disgust thrown in Ron's direction.

"Shut up Malfoy, it's none of your business" Ron said, now suitable distracted from Salvadore's presence. Before any sort of argument could take place Professor Snape showed up and directed everyone in class.

Salvadore was impressed with the stature of their professor. He reasoned that if he knew half as much about defense as he did potions the class would not be a total waste. He was slightly concerned for his classmates when they were paired off to practice silent casting without so much as a hint of how it was accomplished. He was fortunate that the Skewers had pushed him until casting silently was second nature to him, after all, as a curse breaker the time it took to verbalize a spell could be the difference between life and death.

Unfortunately for Salvadore he drew the professors attention when he began to help his partner with her casting. He had been paired off with another Gryffindor by the name of Parvati and had started giving her hints on how to focus when it looked like she was going to pop a blood vessel.

"Mr. Thatcher" dolled the professor "I do believe I am the professor here, not you. Since you don't feel the need for practice… if you would please provide the class an example of how to perform today's exercise." Without waiting for a response the professor launched a series of stinging hexes toward the newest Gryffindor.

Out of reflex Salvadore dodged the first one and quickly blocked the other two, silently to the class's amazement. "I said to block the spells Mr. Thatcher, not dodge, one point from Gryffindor for failing to follow instructions. Now, if you would please show the class how to cast." The professor requested as he took a ready stance. Without waiting for further invite Salvadore sent the same number of hexes his professor's way.

"Adequate" Professor Snape stated after casually blocking the hexes. "The rest of you continue." He said while turning from Salvadore to observe the rest of the class. The class ended with a confrontation between the Harry and professor resulting in a detention for Harry for his 'cheek'. With the class over, Salvadore handed Hermione her books as he was going to the library for the duration of their break while she set off with her two best friends.

"What are you doing getting all chummy with Thatcher for? Don't you remember what he did on the train!?" Ron said as soon as Salvadore had gone his own way.

"Honestly Ron, he was just helping me with the books we got for our Ancient Runes work. He and I actually have all of our classes together." She replied, rolling her eyes at his accusing tone.

"What!? When were you going to tell us that?" Ron stopped and stared at her incredulously as he tried to process, in his eyes, her betrayal.

Before she could respond she was interrupted by a messenger for Harry from the Headmaster. After a quick cheer from Harry about missing Professor Snape's detention they brainstormed the possible topics for the private tutorial. Ron kept quiet during most of the conversation opting instead to send glares to Hermione and grumbling about loyalty.


	9. Chapter 8

AN: Thanks to those who are following. I shall endevour to write for your pleasure. Again, I own nothing.

**Hogwarts Library**

Salvadore felt fortunate that he didn't have any close friends at Hogwarts. With the amount of work that was given from just two classes he was pretty sure he'd hardly get the chance to see them. He had plans for his free time and they certainly did not include being bogged down in homework. Taking advantage of the free period he decided to tackle his homework from Professor Snape first.

He was almost done when he noticed the time and went to find his Arithmancy class. After getting some directions for a fourth year Ravenclaw, he made his way while considering the remaining days schedule.

'Lunch, break, then double potions. Finish defense homework, might be able to get Arithmancy done during lunch and the break then get started on runes and potions.' He thought hoping no complications arose for the remainder of the day. Quickly taking a seat in the front row he half-wished that his housemate would not sit next to him. While she seemed more approachable alone, seeing Ron's reaction as he handed her back her books made him wonder if the trouble he'd have to experience with her as a study partner would be worth it.

Hearing a large group enter the classroom he turned around to see almost the entire sixth year Ravenclaw class, by his estimation, make their way in. He immediately saw a few that he recognized from his Defense class start to point and whisper to the rest of his classmates. He idly wondered what was going to be said about him by the end of the day before pulling out his class materials for the days lesson.

"Is this seat taken?"

Looking up Salvadore saw a petite girl of asian descent.

"Not at all, Salvadore Thatcher, pleasure to meet you" He said as he stood up and extended his hand to greet his new female acquaintance.

"Su Li" she said simply "If I may ask, what brings you to Arithmancy? " She asked trying to gleam some new information on the new student.

"Career Aspirations" He said with a small smirk knowing that he really didn't give her much of an answer. He wanted to expand on his answer in response to her eye roll but was distracted by Hermione entering in a hurry muttering about boys and homework. She gave a small pause when she noticed the seat next to Salvadore was taken but quickly found an empty seat and pulled out her class materials before the class started.

After making arrangements to meet up with Su in the library to work on Arithmancy after dinner at the end of class, Salvadore found Hermione waiting for him.

"How is your first day going so far?" She asked while walking with him to lunch.

"Good, I'd say Hogwarts reputation is well deserved from what I've seen so far" He said thinking back on the classes attended so far.

"It was very impressive what you did in Defense today. I only managed to get a shield to work toward the end of class. Does the same principal apply to all spells cast silently?" She asked thinking back on when she finally had success in class. Outside of Salvadore, she was the only one to successfully cast a spell silently.

"In principal yes. It really boils down to focus and intent. Like accidental magic as a kid. When we're kids it's really easy for us to focus on that one thing we really want, whether it be a cookie, to get away, or not to get hurt." Hermione looked down with a little bit of embarrassment as she remembered her cases of accidental magic involving books located on the top shelf of bookcase in her living room.

"The funny thing is that we lose that level of desire as we grow up and we train so that accidental magic happens less often. At this point it's not enough to simply will a spell into being. We really have to focus on the spell from the wand movement, incantation, and what the spell is suppose to do." He explained.

"So what advice would you give someone who's struggling with this lesson?" She asked, already thinking of a way to help Ron and Harry.

He looked at her as if to read her mind. He would have liked to hope that the interest was purely academic he knew that the information was going to make its way to friends Harry and Ron. While normally he would be all for the sharing of knowledge, one of the two stated individuals was already hosting a healthy dislike for him. Did he really want to arm a possible attacker with a new skill set?

"I'm not sure I want to answer that question" He said as they approached the Great Hall.

"Why not!?" Already thinking the reason was a slight against her. She had seen him, with the rest of the class, try to give hints to Parvati before Professor Snape used him to demonstrate the technique. Since he had tried to help someone before it had to be a personal reason against her. Or more specifically, as she thought on the matter a little bit more, her association with Ron.

"Because I really don't want to give your boyfriend a way to cast at my back without my hearing it" he admitted.

"He's not my boyfriend!" she said with a blush, while realizing that her conclusions were confirmed. While she was originally hopeful that a relationship was on the horizon over the summer, things had definitely not turned out for the better. Additionally, Fleur had given her much to think about on those last couple of days. While she was still open to the idea she was looking at the situation in a new light and had yet to come to a conclusion.

"I would thank you to stop saying that, he's just a friend." Hermione heard a deep intake behind her before the aforementioned boy rudely walked past her bumping her shoulder on his way to the table to sit by Dean and Seamus.

"I think he heard you" Salvadore added humorlessly.

Groaning to herself, she shot a dirty look to Salvadore before she made her way over to her usual spot grumbling about stupid boys. Salvadore looked back to find a questioning gaze on Harry Potters face. Shrugging his shoulders in response he made his way to where Parvati was sitting to see if he could help her further with her spell casting.

Looking torn for a moment, Harry looked between his best friends before deciding to let Ron vent to others. He had been hearing his unconvincing rants about Salvadore all day. Looking at Ron take his frustrations out on his food before putting it in his mouth, Harry decided to lend his support to his other best friend who looked like she needed a shoulder to lean on. Harry had tried, unsuccessfully, to get Ron to admit his feelings to their mutual friend which would usually result in a '_W-what are you talking about!? You're mental_' as a reward. Thinking that some time to himself might do Ron some good, he sat down by Hermione to see if he could help her out.

"You all right?" he asked, noticing she still looked a little flustered.

"You don't have to sit by me you know, I'll be fine" she replied. While she was grateful for the company she also knew that by sitting by her Ron would be even more petulant since his best friend was seen to be taking her side.

"I know, just thought for once you'd like to have the friendly ear" Harry said with a shrug as he started to load his plate.

"Thank you" she responded quietly. "I take it you heard me as well?" she asked hoping that he wouldn't hold it against her.

"Yeah, the last few bits as we turned the corner. He looked really happy for a second then turned to that" he said gesturing to the sandwich tearing redhead further down the table "when he heard you."

"I don't get him" she said realizing that Harry was probably aware of her own feelings toward Ron. "I mean he's just so frustrating"

"I know, I've lived with him for the past five years remember?" he replied with a smirk. "He'll come around, just give him a sec. I told him to write to Bill if he was so concerned. He seemed to be thinking about it when we came down here."

"I hope you two at least got your Defense homework started. I honestly don't think there's enough time in the day to keep up with all the work we're going to have" was Hermione's attempt to change the subject. While Harry was a good person to talk to about this, she didn't want to have the conversation in such a public setting.

"Started…yes." He replied with a chagrined look.

"Honestly, boys" she said with a roll of her eyes letting the conversation fall to more mundane and repetitive subjects.

**Hogwarts, Potions Lab**

Salvadore was feeling quite accomplished. After a quick lunch, he managed to get two homework assignments complete and had a whole evening to complete two more. While the Ancient Runes assignment looked to be complicated, he was very familiar with the subject due to his time spent with the Skewers. While it would take some time he was sure he could process through it without much problem. He was only slightly worried about what potions assignment they would get. From his experience, potions homework could range from a recipe analysis breaking down every procedure to the 'why's' and 'how comes' to a treasure hunt looking through the library for the correct references.

The talk with Parvati had been beneficial. While not getting the technique down yet, she felt she was on the cusp and thanked him for his help in getting her there. Her friend, however, had decided to glare at him between shooting glances toward Ron on the other end of the table. Making his hasty retreat to the library after a quick meal he had finished his Defense and Arithmancy homework before setting down to review his notes and mark any interesting bits for further research before heading down to the dungeons.

Salvadore approached the potions professor with Harry and Ron as soon as they were allowed in the classroom. The three of them got some spare material to use until their school supplies could be delivered. Seeing himself as the odd man out as far as tables went, Salvadore took a table in front of the trio who had Ernie Macmillan as their fourth.

He had heard stories of the rotund professor from the Skewers. They were each from members of one of the few pureblood families in Australia, where they were educated, before being recruited by Gringotts. With Jonathan being three years older than Samantha, they didn't formally meet until they were both assigned to an expedition in Egypt where they fell in love.

Once their Gringotts contracts were up they decided to open their own firm and took their skills to those willing to pay. Over the years their prominence grew and eventually gained the attention of the English pureblood society, where they decided to base their company due to its proximity to the main branch of Gringotts who held their services on retainer.

Unfortunately, much to their ire, they gained the attention of Professor Slughorn who had made many overtures through mutual acquaintances to meet with them. After relenting once while between expeditions they came to two conclusions. First, the man's network of who's who in the wizarding world was astounding and second, due to how they operated neither the man nor his network really had much to offer them. With that being said the Skewers limited contact with him and his known associates and went about their business with tight lips less they get unwanted overtures to help.

While questioning the class on the various potions in the front Professor Slughorn, as expected, stopped to lavish praise to both Harry and Hermione, whom Harry had praised during the Slugclub meeting on the train, much to Ron's growing ire.

As the professor made his challenge for the Felix Felicis, Salvadore tuned in and resolved himself to make a serious effort in this potion. He was taken for a pause, however, when he noticed the additional notations in the book. Some of the instructions he was aware of, having picked them up from Samantha, like crushing the soppphorous bean with the flat of his knife but others like the additional counterclockwise stir were foreign to him.

Deciding to err on the side of caution he went with what he knew and resolved to research the additional steps at a later time to confirm their quality. Looking behind him he noticed Hermione making good progress with her potion followed closely by a struggling Harry. Ron and Ernie looked like they had all but given up hope to salvage their efforts.

Looking around the various potions the professor went to grading their efforts. His eyes perked up when he got to Hermione and Salvadore's potions.

"I must say you two are not making it easy on this old chap are you! Just splendid! However, there can only be one winner and after some careful consideration I must declare our young gentlemen here the winner. Good show my young man, may I ask your name?" The portly professor asked with an odd gleam in his eye.

"Thatcher sir, Salvadore Thatcher" Salvadore reckoned the man would lose interest as soon he realized that he wasn't from a pureblood family with business or social connections. He was partially right.

"Thatcher you say? You wouldn't happen to be related to a Steven Thatcher by chance would you?" he asked, wondering if this could be his chance to reconnect to the elusive Skewers.

"Yes sir, he was my brother." Salvadore answered not noticing a certain blonde slytherin paying more attention than he normally would to what the muggleborn was saying.

"Was?" Professor Slughorn asked seeing his chance to talk with the Skewers slipping away.

"Yes sir, he died several years ago. Accident on the job" Salvadore said, seeing the interest in diminish but not quite extinguish.

"My condolences young man. I'd heard good things about him" He said with a sincere voice before handing out the days homework and dismissing the class.

Packing his belongings Salvadore turned around only to find an evaluating gaze on the face of the Slytherins in the back of the class. Realizing they'd been caught looking their looks quickly turned to sneers as they grabbed their bags and left the potions classroom.

Draco had heard from his father that various Death Eaters had been sent to make contact with the Skewers. Their wards were renowned throughout the wizarding world and the dark lord wanted them for himself. There were grumblings about a Steven Thatcher as some had recounted his efforts in a raid at Diagon Alley. While skilled, they grudgingly acknowledged, the mudblood had not right to apprentice to such prominent purebloods. While most laughed at the fact that Steven was now dead, they also realized that he was their most probable method of locating the elusive Skewers, who made an effort to take all the jobs out of England that they could find.

Their Lord had actually noted that Steven's death 'was a pity'. His Lords' interest in the dead man was not his concern however. While the elder Thatcher might be dead, the Dark Lord might very well be interested in the fact that the mudblood had a younger brother. He quickly made his way to the owlery to ask his father for further guidance as it pertained to Salvadore Thatcher.


	10. Chapter 9

AN: I'm still having trouble getting over this block. I got a couple chapters I'll upload at a later time but the one I'm working on is really giving me a hard time. Rest assured I do plan on completing this one as another story idea has popped into my head. I still do not own Harry Potter. Enjoy.

**Hogwarts Library**

Salvadore sat thinking back on his first day at Hogwarts. Granted he didn't think it was a great first day. If this was the tone for the rest of the year he was definitely in for a long ride. He was finishing dinner intent on meeting Su in the library when a first year approached him with a note from the Headmaster for a meeting. After conferring with the Ravenclaw at her table to reschedule for another time, he made his way.

It was an interesting conversation in his view. He never would have thought that a Headmaster at a school would take such an interest in the personal lives of his students. He could understand the Heads of Houses but Dumbledore?

_FLASHBACK_

"Ah, Mr. Thatcher, please come in and have a seat" the Headmaster greeted.

Salvadore looked around the office. Tomes, paperwork, books, all things one would expect from a wizard. He was taken aback when his eyes crossed Falkes. There were not many people who could manage to impress a phoenix enough to become a familiar for them. More than a little humbled by what the phoenix represented about the Headmaster, Salvadore took a seat across from the Headmaster's desk.

"Thank you sir, though I can't help but be curious. Have I done something wrong?" he queried, thinking about the incident on the train.

"Not at all, young man. Not at all. Professor McGonnagal has informed me of your confrontation on the train. While a regrettable incident, matters have been taken care of and I do believe that there will not be a repeat. I simply wished to meet with you to see if there was anything you felt you needed. I am well aware that transfer students sometimes have difficulties coming to Hogwarts. It is not an easy thing to ask young wizards and witches to leave their homes for an unfamiliar place and make friends with people who have known each other for five years already." Dumbledore wisely stated.

"Ah, I see." Salvadore said with obvious relief in his voice. "Um…no professor, I don't foresee any problems associated with coming here. I knew in general terms what I'd be stepping into. It helps that I'm mostly focused on attaining my N.E. and then going off to find my place in the world. While I may not actively try to break into certain social circles, I won't discourage them either. The way I see it, things will work out the way that they should in the end." He replied thinking that this would end up being a quick meeting.

"Such maturity is not often seen in these halls, I must say it is rather refreshing" the Headmaster said with a smile before continuing. "I do have one concern though, Mr. Thatcher. It has been brought to my attention that your address is listed as a post box usually reserved for Gringotts business. I'm afraid we'll need your home address to contact your family should the need ever occur" the Headmaster requested. Seeing the young man's birthday had intrigued him. Never being one to leave his curiosity unsatisfied, he just had to meet him.

"I'm afraid that's not possible sir. My home is up for sale so I'm effectively homeless. However, please do send such notices to that address. I've made arrangements with Gringotts to notify certain concerned parties if I become unavailable for an extended period of time." He knew the Skewers would be interested in his health but with the Voldemorts resurgence they were planning on staying out of the country as much as possible, maybe even relocate, and keep a low profile. Listing them as emergency contacts could possibly be counterproductive to those plans so the arrangement with Gringotts had been made. The goblins would keep their confidence and notify them post-haste should the need arise.

"Oh, and what of your parents?" the aged headmaster continued with obvious concern in his voice.

"Deceased sir, along with my older brother" he stated rather bluntly. "I've filed the appropriate paperwork to have myself emancipated in the muggle world and have produced copies for the wizarding world as well. With that being said sir, there really isn't anyone to notify other than Gringotts should the need occur.

"My condolences young man, I do apologize for bringing up an unfortunate subject but it appears our records for you are sorely out of date. Your brother, Steven I presume?" Seeing his affirmative nod the headmaster resumed.

"Again, my condolences. From everything I've heard he was an exceptional wizard. Though looking at your own aptitude I would say you were bound for great things yourself." Giving the young wizard a look as though judging him, the older wizard carried on.

"That being said, I would guess that you've inherited his belongings since his passing?" Taking a guess at where the conversation was heading, Salvadore gave a wary nod.

"I see…" he said raising his hand to prevent Salvadore from starting an unnecessary argument. "I'm sure your brother managed to procure many tomes and scrolls in his occupation. I am also sure that many of those documents have not seen the light of day for many centuries, if not longer and for good reason. While these items cannot be confiscated, I will encourage you _not _to bring them out. We wouldn't want any…misunderstandings in regards to your studies now would we?" He finished with a piercing gaze.

"I understand professor" Salvadore replied not necessarily caring about the implications. Yes, he already had one person glaring at him. Yes, he was a virtual unknown to the rest of the student body which made them wary. No, there wasn't anything he could care to do about it. If they labeled him a dark wizard, so be it. He had things to get done and he wasn't about to let some people with delicate sensibilities go out to stop him.

"Most excellent, if you would do an old man a favor as well. I find myself at a rather interesting crossroads. On the one had is everything I've heard about your brother from those who've worked with him. On the other, however, is the label put on him within the ministry. To hear them say it, it would seem that your brother was the one true Death eater who got away. While being a muggleborn it is unlikely that is true but it is not unheard of. I was curious if you could shed some light on the subject. I have looked into the matter myself but find very little on the subject of your brother" he finished while reverting back to a conversational tone.

In truth he knew that Steven Thatcher just happened to somehow anger purebloods with his actions during the war. Mostly stemming from his apprenticeship with the Skewers. However, to gain such ire as to get a ministry black mark on his record was interesting. Typically only those suspected of becoming dark wizards garnered those. In Steven's case, it was due to 'The suspected unprovoked attacks and murder of several prominent purebloods'. There were two incidents in question that corresponded with Death Eater attacks.

The first was the attack at Diagon Alley. James and Frank had reported that they were certain they were going to die when Tom had arrived at the alley. It was only due to the wards being brought down by an unknown wizard that they managed to escape. He highly suspected just who that unknown wizard was now.

The second incident was but a footnote in the war. There were several attacks on wizarding homes on the night in question. One of them had failed most spectacularly. It was a muggle home that was warded in a minimalist but most deadly fashion. The first Death Eaters that had approached the home were trapped and killed before others could warn them of the wards detected around the house. It was apparently the primary target of the night as the Voldemort himself was rumored to have arrived and tore down the wards himself.

However, by the time the Aurors arrived to investigate the magical activity detected, all they found was a burning house, no bodies, nor a dark mark. He suspected who's house that was as well. Putting what facts he had together, he rationalized that the only reason Steven Thatcher was not brought to trial was that some of the 'witnesses' would be forced to testify under Veritaserum to explain the circumstances of the incidents. The accusations were enough however for the mark to be placed. While not what they would have wanted, it would have to do to sate their vengeance.

The mark itself was enough to put him on watch lists with the ICW. No country would take him in had he chosen to immigrate. As it was, it made it rather difficult for the young man to go on his curse breaking expeditions. He was often left with limited time to work and leave the country, usually with at least one or two minders from the countries own ministry.

The young man was fortunate that he was considered an independent contractor as no respectable permanent employer would risk taking him on. Gringotts usually didn't care for such matters as long as the expedition was successful. If rumors were to believed, no one else had a higher record of successful dark jobs either. With all that in mind, Albus Dumbledore just had to see if he could gleam more information to clear up the picture that was Steven Thatcher Jr.

Salvadore was torn on how to answer this question. His first instinct was to rant how the purebloods had gone after his brother politically when they found they couldn't kill him themselves. He had read his mothers and brothers journals of that time. He read the clippings they had saved from the prophet that related to the events. However, he also knew that perhaps, just maybe, the Headmaster could help clear his brothers reputation with his position in the Wizengamot. Deciding to answer the question, he let the Headmaster know all that he knew.

"I'm not sure entirely what you're asking professor. If you're asking what my brother did during the war…well…not much. He was out of the country for most of it with his apprenticeship. From his and my parents journals it was mostly a matter of wrong place at the wrong time. Well…I suppose that's true for Diagon Alley and the refugee center raid, I find it disconcerting that my parents were involved in the war more than my brother." Seeing the Headmasters eyebrows raise in curiosity Salvadore decided to elaborate.

"The only part of the war my brother saw was the attack on Diagon Alley. My family was there to retrieve some items before heading into muggle London for an outing. While there the Death Eaters attacked. My brother ushered my parents to shelter while he joined the defenders. Finding an opportune moment he took down the wards preventing escape rushed to my parents and escaped." Salvadore was curious about the affirmative nod the Headmaster was giving. He felt that he was just confirming information for the old wizard.

"The next incident didn't even involve my brother…not directly anyway. The Death Eaters had targeted my parents home, presumably to get at Steven since, according to him, it was the only address on record with the Ministry. Steven wasn't even in the country at the time." He explained to the aged Headmaster.

"The wards he put around the house warned my parents of the attack. Out of respect for my brother's warning they had already packed emergency bags so they called the police, grabbed their bags, and used a portkey that my brother had provided." The headmaster was looking very intrigued with that incident and it was putting Salvadore on edge.

"The last incident happened after my parents arrived from their portkey. They were stuck at a Ministry refugee center until Steven could make his way back to collect them and make their next move. Unfortunately, before he got there was a raid on the facility. My parents barely managed to escape that attempt as well. When they finally reunited my parents made their way to France until word of Voldemort's defeat reached the continent. So you see sir, I don't know what could have constituted my brother's black mark. He was barely involved and when he was, his actions could hardly be considered unjustified" he finished.

While calm on the outside, internally Albus's mind was astonished and working a mile a second.

'There were three potentials! Simply amazing!' were his thoughts. Looking at the young man he couldn't help but take his measure and compare him to Harry and Nevill. While a little darker, magically speaking, than he would have liked there was no doubting the boy's ability if his O.W.L scores were any indication. In fact he'd say he probably would have made a better candidate to defeat Voldemort based on his academic acumen. It was unfortunate that Voldemort had already done his part in marking Harry.

'There is no point in considering the possibilities that did not happen' he thought. 'Harry must be prepared for what is to come. That this boy also fit the criteria…who would have considered a muggleborn.'

He also couldn't help but compare the three boys. There just had to be something related to the prophecy that drove their circumstances into being orphans. All three had lost their parents. When he delved deeper into that thought he would realize that all of the primary and possible subjects related to the prophecy were orphans. An intriguing thought that would have to be investigated later he mused.

Seeing Salvadore waiting for him, the Headmaster decided to end the conversation there so he could return to his musings.

"Thank you Mr. Thatcher. That was a most enlightening conversation. While you are too polite to ask. Please allow me to make some quiet enquiries with the Ministry and see if we can remove the mark from his file. With certain allegiances made public, I believe that it should not be too difficult" he said with a small smile.

"Please, enjoy the rest of your evening. I imagine the professors are weighing you down with more than a few assignments" Dumbledore concluded. Acknowledging the dismissal, Salvadore thanked the Headmaster and made his way to the library. Feeling more than a little dreary from the explanation of his family history he was hoping he had enough left to finish his Ancient Runes homework.

_End Flashback_

Having finished his Ancient Runes assignment Salvadore decided to look up books that might help him in his personal studies. Having collected a short stack he decided to read before heading up to the common room to unwind. He knew he was no social butterfly but he was wondering if he was setting a bad first impression with his housemates.

His thoughts kept returning to the state of the Headmaster's hand. He had seen that particular effect before but he couldn't quite remember when. The thought was quickly banished as he reminded himself that he only had 2 years to learn as much as he could before he had to leave. Whatever the case he didn't consider it any of his business.

Refocusing on the texts on hand he continued to read and take notes. His train of thought was interrupted when someone approached his table.

"Is anyone sitting here?" asked Hermione as she looked for a table to spread out her own stack of books. Gesturing for her to take a seat he resumed where he left off. It was a comfortable silence broken only by the scratches of quills and the turning of pages.

"I'm sorry about your boy… I mean friend" he whispered abruptly.

Startled, Hermione almost jumped out of her seat and looked at him inquisitively.

"The one from lunch and the train. Ron, right?" seeing her nod he continued "I'm sorry he's mad at you. Partially my fault. Something tells me he doesn't like me. You should probably stay away until you can set things right with him." Salvadore had already resolved himself to limited social contact while at Hogwarts. No reason to subject somebody else to the same fate by his logic.

"Oh, no it's….complicated" she said, remembering what lead to her crush's current bad attitude she decided to press forward with a question of her own.

"Why do you keep saying that?" she asked as she turned back to her book.

"Saying what?" he replied with confusion etched on his face.

"That he's my boyfriend" she gritted out. 'Merlin, are all boys so dense!' she thought to herself.

"Oh...well, scuttlebutt from my classmates at the Ministry school is that it's pretty common for the Prefects to be dating. Makes sense from all the time spent together. Saw you two in the alley, in the train, and sitting together at the dinner. Made sense at the time" he explained while starting to pack his belongings.

"I see. Well…we're not but thank you for the apology. Things will return to normal soon enough I expect" she said as she started packing her own belongings. Curfew was coming up and she wanted to at least look over Harry's homework for him and maybe Ron's, unless he was still avoiding her.

The two made their way back to the common room in silence. The last conversation seemed awkward enough to kill further attempts at conversation. Salvadore spent the time wondering how many ways he'd step on his dorm mates toes while Hermione spent her time thinking of Ron.

What she said was true. She could hazard a guess as to why he would take offense but he still had not right to. If he ever decided to muster up his courage and ask her out then things may be different. She was hoping this would be the year he would do so. Circumstances seemed to be going from bad to worse with them. She was certain things would go back to normal soon. If for any other reason than Ron would need help with his homework at some point.

They entered the common room and Salvadore immediately made his way up to his dorm room after a quick goodbye. Hermione looked around and saw the subject of her thoughts engaged in a game of chess with Harry. By the look of his red tinged ears he had seen them walk in together.

'Maybe I should write to Bill myself and see if he can get Ron to see reason?' she thought. The only reason she had approached Salvadore at all was due to Bill's reassurances that nothing was going to happen. Deciding to sleep on the matter Hermione made her way up to her own bed to get ready for the next day.


	11. Chapter 10

AN: Insert disclaimer here. The last chapter I was working on was quite difficult but it is done. I'm hoping the rest flow more easily. Please enjoy.

**Hogwarts Library**

The weekend couldn't come fast enough for Salvadore. Not that it was a bad week but the glares coming his way from Ron were getting annoying really fast. It wasn't his fault that he was the only one in their class year that could consistently cast silently. It wasn't his fault that Professor Snape regularly commented his practical work as 'adequate', which for him counted as high praise. It certainly wasn't his fault that Hermione had taken to studying with him in the library after dinner.

Seeing Salvadore practically living in the library had inspired her to try and keep up with his study schedule. By Wednesday they fell into a routine of completing their homework together before going their separate ways before curfew. Hermione would usually go to help Harry study, as Ron was still mad at her, and Salvadore would stay in the library researching rituals and runes.

The whole week wasn't too bad. Dean and Seamus had eventually approached and compared notes on sports. Not bad blokes in his opinion but defiantly not study partner material. Neville was an oddity to him. Definitely powerful but very reserved, as though he was still growing into the self-confidence he seldom displayed.

Interest from the various females in the school was as expected. Few and waning further. Not that he was looking for a relationship at the time but a guy had his pride. He wasn't bad looking by any stretch but at this point he knew that most girls already had their eyes set on a certain someone and if they didn't it certainly wasn't going to wander to a muggleborn ministry student.

The Slytherin front had been oddly docile on his front. Sure he'd seen Harry and Ron verbally spar with a blonde named Draco but he'd been largely left alone. Outside of some evaluating looks coming his way from some of them he'd been largely left alone, which Ron had noticed and commented on. Apparently since he was not targeted in the daily squabbles nor would he 'back up' Harry and Ron in their verbal jousting, his character was now in question. While the rants were kept to a minimum he was certainly loud enough where the whole common room would hear his mutterings to Harry over their chessboard.

This of course led to where he was now. Remembering his promise to teach Hermione how to enchant the bottomless bag he was waiting for her in the library. He was actually going over his potions book when she arrived.

"Going over potions again Salvadore?" She asked, grateful that there was finally someone else in Gryffindor that put as much emphasis in their studies as she did.

"Sort of, look at this" he said while handing the book to her. He knew some of the techniques were valid but he wanted a second opinion on some of the others before he experimented with them.

"What happened to your book?"

"It's the one Professor Slughorn let me borrow, all those instructions were already written in there."

"Have you been using these in class?" she asked as her ire was starting to rise. It seemed like cheating using someone else's notes on a subject he was suppose to be learning. It would be one thing if he discovered the techniques himself but he learned nothing if he was just copying from someone else.

"Some of them, the ones I know for a fact work. The ones I'm not sure about I skip" he replied while digging through his bag while looking for his notes on how to make the bag she wished for. Unaware that he had managed to stave off one of Hermione's rants by piquing her curiosity.

"What do you mean?"

"Hmmm? Oh, well look at the Draught of Living Death that we made earlier this week. I've learned that crushing the seeds will release more juice for the potion but the instructions on the stirring I'm unfamiliar with so I skipped those and stuck with the normal instructions" Salvadore said while she looked at the appropriate steps.

Salvadore continued to point out the various changes that he could confirm and which ones he was unfamiliar with. Hermione was impressed with his potions knowledge and had started to make mental notes to research some of the things he had mentioned to verify for herself. She was hoping that the extra research might allow her to return the favor of him teaching her the enchantments for her bag.

"How did you learn all this? And why are you telling me?" she asked with a little skeptism. While she was all for the sharing of knowledge, assuming that the others were also putting in the work, she knew that the academics in Hogwarts were pretty competitive, especially in the N.E.W.T years. Being as the magical community was small, jobs were few in numbers unless one went to work for the Ministry or started their own business. Since they were all going to be competing against each other after they graduated every little piece of knowledge that could make them stand out was worth its weight in galleons.

"Well I worked with some potions masters that would join us on the dig sites. They're the ones who showed me the instructions I pointed out. Judging by the types of instructions changed in there I'd say that they were written but an eventual potions master themselves. I mean those are some pretty radical changes to some of them. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the recipes had ingredients completely swapped out."

"As to why I'm telling you this? Why not? I know things are pretty competitive here but the hording of knowledge just isn't how I was taught to do business. Don't get me wrong, there are some things you keep quiet about. Family magics for example or maybe there's someone whose intentions you don't necessarily trust or maybe it's just a specialized spell for the tradesmen. Can't have the customers be able to make the items for themselves now can they?" Seeing her nod in understanding he continued.

"Well on a dig site there's no such thing. We share knowledge as best we can. Why? Because there's a likely chance that you're going to be put out of commission at one point or another and you're going to have to rely on the rest of the team to save your bacon. God forbid the spell, potion, or technique is locked in your head alone because you wanted to feel special." Hermione was taken aback by the turn of phrase. Most magical substituted Merlin for God. She made a mental not to ask him about it later.

"In this case I was tutored by some Potions Masters that hadn't found their apprentices yet. Not a good thing if the only person who could make the extra strong blood replenishing potion is in need of it and hadn't gotten around to making it yet. Which is not uncommon to have happen" he said with a small smirk as he remembered the last time it had happened.

"They showed me some of their tricks of the trade. Some of this stuff that only a person with a mastery would understand the why's and the how's, like the stirring instructions. Some of it is stuff they found through experimentation and research like brewing certain potions on a full moon for increased potency. Don't get me wrong, I've no interest in going for a mastery myself but they definitely taught me enough where I could probably correct most mistakes I would make while brewing and come out with an adequate potion."

"Well…" she started, put at ease with the explanation "if you can recognize that a potential potions master wrote them why wouldn't you use all of them?" She had a hard time reconciling the fact that someone wouldn't just take shortcuts when presented to them. She knew Ron wouldn't resist and she hoped Harry would but she couldn't say for certain much to her disappointment.

"That would be because most potion masters would tan your hide if you told them you gave someone a potion that was made following someone else's instructions blindly without verifying the results first. Sometimes changes are made to add more potency, sometime they're there to dilute it, sometimes it just changes the taste, and sometimes they're there to subtly sabotage a potion or have it do something in addition to its usual results. The only way to tell is to research. Arithmancy comes in handy there as I'm sure you can tell, followed by making a test batch and of course, when in doubt, ask a potion master" he finished as he found the notebook he was looking for.

"Tell you what…" he started making sure he had her full attention. "I'm probably going to test a couple of next week's potions tonight to verify the instructions. If you want you can come with and if they're legit I'll let you copy them."

"Just like that?" She asked, still unsettled that a fellow student would so willingly share such potentially advanced knowledge. From this conversation she knew that he was rightfully at the top of their potions class. If the notes were as good as they suspected it would likely bring her own performance on par with his own. She didn't know him, they could hardly be counted as friends, so why would he be willing to share with her?

"Just like that" he replied. Recognizing her hesitation, he decided to elaborate.

"Despite what the common practice is around here, we're not in competition. Believe me when I say that our final class rankings will not affect our respective career paths in the slightest."

"How do you know that for sure?"

"Are you planning on working for the Ministry when you get out of here?"

"It's where I'm leaning, yes."

"Then we're not in conflict"

"What are you planning for your future then?" She asked hoping to get a little bit more insight to the newcomer.

"Some other time. We got a bag to teach you to enchant. Ready?" Seeing her nod they continued to go over his notebook reviewing the charms and enchantments needed before going into an empty classroom to start placing them on her bag.

It was a happy Hermione who practically skipped all the way back to the Gryffindor tower with her new enchanted bag in tow. After arranging to meet with Salvadore early in the evening to test the potions instructions they went their separate ways. Hermione went to the common room to encourage Harry to finish his homework while Salvadore returned to the library.

Finally deciding on not wanting to skip lunch Salvadore packed his things and made his way to the great hall. Salvadore ate in peace. He made it a point to ignore the glares and inquisitive looks Ron and sister would send his way. His peace was suddenly interrupted by two owls that landed in front of him to deliver letters.

He recognized Hooter immediately. The anticipation of what the Skewers had to say brought a smile to his face. The second owl was a mystery. Attached to its leg was a letter that looked more like it belonged in the muggle post. A frown crossed his face as he read the return address.

Pierre Lavigne. His grandfather. Despite his stated intentions, the old man had certainly distanced himself further from the Thatchers as years went by. His mother had never reconciled with her immediate family despite everyone else's efforts. The final nail in the coffin with the efforts had been when Pierre had gotten himself thrown out of the funeral for Steven Sr, who had died under mysterious circumstances in 1981.

After his mother died Pierre had attempted to strong-arm tactics to take custody of Salvadore. His attempts had failed in a most dramatic fashion. When the dust had settled Steven Thatcher had gained custody of his younger brother and all but disappeared into the wizarding world. Pierre had consistently tried to make contact with the Thatcher brothers over the years but to no avail.

Salvadore wondered what avenue his grandfather would try now. His last attempt was trying to gain custody upon learning that Steven Jr was deceased. Those efforts had led to Salvadore's emancipation. Putting the letter away for later he opened the letter from the Skewers.

_Salvadore,_

_Congratulations on Gryiffindor! The house of the brave you say? Somehow we find that fitting. Remember though, those that rush in blindly are merely the first to get hit. We'd hate to see all our teachings go to waste because you foolishly charged into a situation you were ill prepared for. _

_Samantha is fine. She would write to you herself but she is currently on bed rest recovering. No need to worry, she just got caught in a potion brewing accident and needs to flush the residue from her system, so she's sleeping it off for the next week or so._

_I know it's just been a week but do you think you'll be able to find the knowledge you seek for your project? While you now know that the Hogwarts library is not the largest in the world, it is mighty extensive. Thankfully, from what I hear, for the N.E.W.T years you are given almost free reign of the restricted section. I'd suspect you should be able to find what you need in there._

_Don't forget to keep up with your non-magical studies. There is no such thing as bad knowledge to a cursebreaker. Mundane knowledge will save you just as much as magical. We look forward to hearing about how the rest of your time there goes. At least every other week or Samantha will go there herself and scream your ear off._

_We expect to only be at this site for two more weeks before we head back to England. With the recent political climate I expect we'll be leaving for another expedition soon after, probably within a week. I don't expect we'll be spending much time in England for the foreseeable future and will more than likely start preparing to transfer our business to either the Americas or Australia. With that said I fear we will not be able to spend the holidays with you this year._

_Stay safe Salvadore. We'll write to you again soon._

_Always,_

_Jonathan_

Salvadore wondered what else was going on with them. They had strict rules they followed in the camp. One of them was no interrupting the brewer. While proficient in potions, neither Skewer would be in charge of the brewing in a camp. So for Samantha to be caught in an accident meant that they were being driven to distraction or it was no accident.

The fact that they were intentionally staying away from England was of very little surprise. They had discussed options when Voldemort was announced to have returned. In all honesty, he would hardly be surprised if they officially relocated before the term ended. They didn't tell him the full story but Salvadore suspected the Death Eaters had attempted to recruit them before and they were going to get out of there before they found themselves painted into a corner.

Hogwarts was safe by everyone's estimation, especially with Dumbledore as Headmaster. If the circumstances ever changed then they would re-evaluate and see if he would have a better shot at transferring to an international school.

Salvadore packed his belongings and decided to study outside. Working his tail off during the week meant that his weekends would be free to pursue other subjects. Seeing a tree that had his name on it out by the lake, he made his way.

There were at least one set of eyes that tracked him as he made his way out. Ron was still disregarding his brother's advice and decided to keep an eye on Thatcher himself. Getting chewed out by Professor McGonnagal had at least taught him to be more patient. He didn't want to lose his Prefect position and he certainly didn't want his mother to find out about it either.

"Who do you think wrote him?" he asked while turning to Harry.

"Who?"

"Thatcher, didn't you see the letters"

"Not really, wasn't paying attention. Maybe some classmates from his own school"

"Maybe, he looked upset at one of them"

"Dunno what to say mate, still say you listen to Bill and just leave him alone."

"But he didn't say what they talked about! How is that suppose to put me at ease?"

"Well first off, considering they were talking about his brother's death, you can't really expect him to just come out and talk about it. It looked like it took a lot out of him to just talk about it to us. Also, considering that he came back looking relieved and even waved your father off means the meeting probably didn't go all that bad. I can't imagine a duel to the death ending with both people walking away to continue their lives you know?"

"Y'know, I thought I'd get a little more support from my best mate. I can't talk about this anymore, let's go hit the pitch. I want to get some extra practice in before the tryouts next week."

Glad that the current anti-Thatcher rant was headed off. The two made their way to the Quidditch pitch. Harry wondered just how long Ron would stay away from Hermione. Harry had taken to spending more time with her so she wouldn't feel too isolated from the both of them like in third year.

He really wished they would just admit their feelings for each other so they could get things back to normal.


	12. Chapter 11

AN: Don't own a darn thing outside of what I have purchased for myself. Since I doubt any of the works would go for less than some spare change I'll have to pass. Thanks for reading.

**The Black Lake**

Salvadore was thoroughly enjoying his studying outside until he received a visitor.

"Thatcher"

Looking up, he saw a blond haired boy, about his age, obviously from Slytherin. He was standing as though he was about to do something uncomfortable, an almost constipated look on his face. Knowing exactly what kind of attitudes predominated Slytherin house Salvadore made sure his wand was ready. He didn't know where this conversation was going but he was pretty sure he wasn't going to like it.

They remained that way for several moments. Finally, Salvadore decided to break the silence and find out just what the boy wanted.

"You seem to have me at a disadvantage. Who are you and what do you want?" moving his book to his side, he waited for his visitor to state his intentions.

"Malfoy, Draco Malfoy" he said with a disgusted tone. He still hadn't looked in Salvadore's direction.

"Well that answers the who, care to explain the what?" Salvadore pressed, slightly amused at the conversation or lack thereof.

Salvadore scrutinized Draco who seemed to be having some sort of internal debate. After what must have been at least a minute Draco finally seemed to have come to a decision. Taking a deep breath, Draco finally looked Salvadore in the eyes, turned around, and walked away.

Thoroughly confused, Salvadore sat there trying to piece together what just happened. He had of course heard of the name Malfoy. A very influential family until the patriarch's fall from grace toward the end of the previous school year. No doubt the son would follow in the footsteps of his father if his former classmates were to be believed.

That being said the whole encounter confused him. Cursed at; yes, hexed; sure, threatened; why not, introduced just to walk away; never in a million years. Deciding that a new venue was in order to get his mind off the confusing events Salvadore decided to make his way back to the castle. Perhaps some time in the library before dinner would help clear his thoughts.

Finding his way to what he is quickly considering their table, he finds Hermione doing some reading of her own. A quick perusal of the titles tells him that she's probably researching the charms used for her bag. Seeing a lithe blonde Ravenclaw sitting next to her he decides to join them.

"Mind if I have a seat?" So focused on her reading Hermione practically jumped when she heard his voice.

"No, not at all, just doing a little light reading. Oh, have you met Luna yet? She's a fifth year. Luna Lovegood this is Salvadore Thatcher" she said while gesturing to her tablemate.

"A pleasure Ms. Lovegood" nodding his head in greeting Salvadore was unprepared for response.

"You're another one" Luna stated, almost staring through him.

"Excuse me?" He was thinking this waif of a girl was going to go on an anti-muggleborn rant, which didn't make sense considering she was sitting next to Hermione. Hoping for some clarification, he didn't receive any.

"Just a feeling. I can't really put a name to it but there were only two boys I've met that made me feel this way. You're the third. You don't have any wrackspurts do you?" The tone she used with her question made him worry about giving a wrong answer, never mind he had no clue what a wrackspurt was.

"Um, no?" completely unsure of his answer he felt a trickle of sweat roll down his spine as she evaluated him further.

"Good, they tend to make ones thoughts go on a tizzy. Thank you for sharing your table Hermione. I'd best put my things away before dinner. A pleasure meeting you Salvadore, I do hope you have a good year." Gathering her belongings she left the library leaving behind a pair of confused and bemused Gryffindors.

"Is she…"

"Yes"

"What's a…"

"No one knows but her."

"I'm…"

"You'll get used it"

"How do…."

"Everyone asks the same questions when they meet her for the first time. You get used to her. She's a good friend." Smiling in amusement, Hermione made a mental note to thank Fleur when next they saw each other. The French Veela had shattered a lot of her preconceptions of her and had unintentionally made her re-evaluate a lot of feelings toward others she hardly knew.

While she may never have much in common with Luna she realized that Luna really was a good friend. She would just have to make sure to keep the conversations on magical animals to a minimum.

"If it's not too awkward, what do you know about Draco Malfoy?" He asked while pulling out his books for studying.

"Malfoy? Why do you want to know about him?" He described the incident by the lake which only put a confused look on her face.

"That doesn't sounds like him at all. The mere fact that he approached you is out of character for him. It just doesn't make any sense." She was confused. Malfoy never skipped on an opportunity to make snide remarks to her. Thinking of the couple days she realized that Malfoy would remain oddly quiet whenever Salvadore was around. Just what did this new behavior mean.

She was broken from her thinking when she noticed just what books Salvadore was pulling out. She was so shocked that it actually took her a couple minutes before she could ask the questions rampaging through her mind.

"Is that a Geology book?" she asked finally.

"Yeah"

"Why do you have a Geology book?"

Feeling he was just asked a redundant question, he decided to give a redundant answer.

"So I can study Geology."

Feeling her ire start to rise at his non-informative answers, Hermione took a breath to recompose herself. She had to remember that this wasn't Harry or Ron who would routinely spill all they knew when she asked a question. She wondered if this is what others felt like when they didn't ask her the right questions. Realizing she had been spoiled these last few years with no one in her peer group on the same academic or intellectual level as her she decided to take a moment and compose the question to hopefully get the information she was looking for.

"Why are you taking time to study for muggle schooling in a wizarding school? What are you hoping to accomplish with it?" She felt she was a little out of practice asking pertinent questions but she felt would get the job done.

Realizing the day was turning into a distraction from his studies, Salvadore closed his book hoping the conversation would at least further clear his head of the blonde Slytherin's behavior.

"I wanted to keep the option of attending a university when I'm done with my magical education. I have an apprenticeship lined up after I complete my N.E.W.T.s but to be honest it's more of a formality than anything." Seeing her look of astonishment he decided to fill her in on the bulk of his education before Hogwarts.

"Between my brother and the Skewers I've already learned enough to squeak a living as a curse breaker. These last two years will hopefully polish things off so I could become a good one."

"They taught you?" she had thought that he was some type of prodigy who had just happened to be sent to a Ministry school after seeing the results of his O.W.L.s. That he was taught by others outside of school was helping things make sense.

"Yeah, good thing too because the Ministry schools are rubbish. They're only goal is to pass O.W.L.s and since Acceptables are passing, that's the level they teach to. It's actually pretty common with the wizarding families to get some extra lessons at home in regards to family expertise's or as it would pertain to the family shops."

"Wait, what about the muggleborns?" she asked with her sense of righteous indignation rising.

"They make do with what's available. The education level is to Acceptable. Nothing prevents you from going to Daigon Alley and buying more books on the subjects. It's what my brother did. He actually managed to pull O's and E's on his O.W.L.s. Just in the core classes offered though. He didn't have anyone to teach him the elective classes so didn't bother with them until later."

"That really doesn't seem fair but I'm getting off topic. Why university? Are you not planning on staying in the wizarding world?" There were actually about a dozen other questions she wanted to ask but she'd calmed down from when she was eleven and knew she'd be able to get to them eventually.

"Yes, just not here. I have no intention of staying in Britain when I'm done here."

Shocked at the admission she could only ask "Why not?"

Incredulously he looked at her for a few seconds before answering.

"Can you not see how muggleborns are treated here in Britain? Why would I want to stay in a country where I'd be treated worse than a second class citizen? Hell, the only thing that kept me from trying for an overseas school is the fact that scholarships around the world are only offered to the native citizenry and I'm trying to save up my money. Muggle universities aren't cheap."

"Trust me" he continued "I'd have even tried immigrating already and gone to a different magical school BUT the ICW put an age restriction on immigration at seventeen. Funny enough, it's one of the few rules that all the nations stick to with no exceptions. So I'd might as well get my N.E.W.T.s with the scholarship and then move on."

The conversation was taking Hermione back to when she was thirteen and had made a life altering decision. She had completed her GCSE's before her third year. While her parents were hoping she would continue with her muggle education she had decided to fully commit herself to the wizarding world. She loved her parents dearly but they just didn't understand that this was where she belonged.

Talking with him was making her wonder just what she was setting herself up for. While she knew that her future lied within the wizarding world, she couldn't help but think about just what she could be missing out on. For example, she didn't know how the environment could affect the strength and types of wards used on a home.

Due to the water saturated ground in Britain warders often used stone as the ward anchors. While iron would be preferred due to its ability to handle robust magic the water saturated ground of Britain would eventually erode the anchor, bringing down the wards. Stone however could handle the wet nature very well but the drawback was, outside of using a boulder to use as an anchor, you needed multiple stones to achieve the same effect and would often result in complicated ward schemes to ensure stability and complete coverage.

The conversation continued until dinner. They talked about the applicability of muggle subjects in the wizarding world. Hermione was only a little surprised when she learned how little the wizarding world paid attention to muggle subjects. The Skewers were often asked to ward homes because the anchors had decayed and fallen for some 'inexplicable' reason. They also got in quite a few arguments over what ward materials were able to be used due to the geology of the land. In the end the customer would get what they wanted only for the Skewers to return to re-do the wards.

They broached the subject of what they wanted to do for a career and Hermione absolutely refused to believe that her best chances for employment would be a low level clerk at the Ministry. They made their way into the Great Hall for dinner not realizing that there were two individuals tracking their every movement.

"I"ve been telling you he's dark, now will you believe me?" Ron practically demanded of his best friend.

"I know Ron but none of this is adding up. I know Malfoy's up to something but Thatcher just doesn't make any sense. What do you expect us to do? You're already in trouble with McGonnagal so you can't be wrong on this." Harry said. He knew something was going on but nothing was adding up. Why would Malfoy walk up to a muggleborn of his own free will. From the length of the conversation, it hardly seemed like an in depth conversation took place.

"What's there to add up? He's already threatened my brother, attacked me on the train, and now he's in cahoots with Malfoy? You can't tell me you trust him around Hermione." Ron was getting frustrated with his friends perceived blindness. The new boy was dark, they had to get him out of the school somehow but Harry wasn't seeing things his way.

"But what are they trying to do, I mean Malfoy's even been lying low these last few days. I don't know what to make of him. But I'm not about to go off half-cocked, not anymore. I'd like to think Hermione wouldn't spend so much time around him if he were dark."

Ron's mood certainly didn't improve at the mention of their female best friend. While he had thought that he was making progress in their relationship things had taken more than a few steps back soon after receiving their O. . The fact that she had found an academic equal for a study partner that just happened to be the subject of his ire didn't sit well with him.

Seeing Hermione leave dinner, presumably to have her study time with Harry, Ron decided to follow. While they hadn't been talking much he knew if he could convince Hermione Harry would certainly start to see things his way. Ron just knew she'd understand, she was smart enough to probably figure out just what Thatcher and Malfoy were up to. He'd wait until after she was done studying with Harry, she'd be more receptive then.


	13. Chapter 12

AN: Sorry for the delay. My computer spend the last month getting repaired. Between troubleshooting, restoring the OS and the actual time it took to fix; I was computerless for almost a month. Just got it back this week and have been taking the time to reconfigure everything to how I wanted it. Back to writing now. Was not very happy with this chapter but I felt it was necessary to help the story progress the way I wanted it. I realize now that this is probably going to be longer than I was originally thinking but never fear, it will be finished. Standard disclaimer: Don't own the charactors I did not think of myself. Enjoy

**Hogwarts Library**

Salvadore was very much enjoying his evening study session. The conversation with Hermione about the applicability of muggle subjects in the magical world was a breath of fresh air. While he was surprised that she had admitted to completing her GCSE's at thirteen, he wasn't surprised to learn that she had given up on her muggle education. Most of the muggleborns he knew had done the same. He knew some would go back to complete their muggle education, often leading to them leaving the wizarding world entirely.

Double checking his progress through his syllabus, he estimated he would be able to sit for his A-levels during the Christmas holidays. He made a note to contact the Gringotts and see if they had anyone that could help him with the scheduling.

It was an eventful first week. He knew he'd be the odd-man out in the social circles but he certainly wasn't expecting to have to ward his bed in case one of his dormmates decided to take their sense of justice into their own hands. Bill had told him that he would settle things with his family so that they'd know there wasn't anything to worry about but obviously either Ron either didn't listen or was still sore from their previous two encounters.

Looking back at Diagon Alley, he realized he really didn't make the best first impression. Hoping that an apology would help ease the tension in their dorm he decided to bite the bullet. Packing up his things, he made his way to the Gryffindor boys dorm. His plan was to review some of the tomes his brother and acquired before reading through his potions book. Outside of the potions work he planned with Hermione, he was planning to start reading and working ahead of his textbooks. He hoped the extra work now would free up more time in the future for his personal studies.

He was thinking that if perhaps he could clear things up with Ron that the year might not actually be so bad. Reaching the common room, he opened the portrait to an argument in progress.

"…no right to dictate to me who I can and cannot associate with Ronald Weasley! Just because you don't like him does not give you the right to make a pariah out of him!" came Hermione's voice before the common room came into view. Guessing that the argument was somehow about him, Salvadore decided to stand back out of view and listen in.

"Damn it Hermione! Have you gone mental?! We're trying to protect you! Can't you see that Harry's right about Malfoy? You saw the same books I saw in that compartment, we saw the scars and extra wands he has. You don't just get those standing around. The guy is as dark as they come! Him meeting with Malfoy just shows where his loyalties lie!" was Ron's retort.

While somewhat surprised that someone had seen the 'meeting' with Draco, Salvadore was more confused at how the elder Weasley had come to the conclusion that they were in cahoots. The conversation, if it could be called that didn't even last a minute. Just what kind of diabolical scheme could be planned in that amount of time.

"Why are you so hung up on that!" she exasperated, throwing her hands up in the air. "I've told you what happened there. He told me when we were in the library and of course he has scars, Harry has scars, I have scars, you have scars, and that's just from being here at Hogwarts. Do you honestly think someone who's been living with cursebreakers most of his life would escape without any scars? By that logic Gryffindor house would be a mill-factory for dark lords"

Seeing Ron's about to explode about the insinuation that his beloved house would turn out a dark lord, Harry placed a hand on his best-mates shoulder. He knew the argument was getting out of hand but he had no idea how to put things back on track. Harry really had no idea what to think of Thatcher. Studious bloke, kept to himself, didn't seem to be going out of his way to cause any trouble. He knew Malfoy was up to something and seeing him walk up to Thatcher was confusing.

Despite his thoughts he knew he had to do something before either of his friends said something that would regret later on. He was interrupted before he could say anything by what Ron felt was a checkmate in the argument.

"What about the wands then? You don't find those just lying around. No witch or wizard goes buying extra wands. The only way to get active wands is to get them from other people." Letting his last point soak for a moment, Ron pressed seeing that Hermione couldn't come up with a retort.

"Thatcher is either a thieving bastard or a murderer, you can't trust him!" Seeing her shocked face Ron felt the slightest sense of vindication. Finally, after several long years he won an argument.

Salvadore had heard enough though. Thinking of his options he was about to decide when a voice sounded off behind him.

"Tell me Mr. Weasley, does that attitude pertain to your eldest brother as well? I would think that William would be most distressed that you felt that way about him."

Turning around, Salvadore saw Professor McGonnagal marching straight to the center of the common room.

"Bill isn't like that! He…" Ron bellowed before realizing just who he was talking to. The stern professor, however, knew her students quite well and was prepared to cut him.

"I can assure you Mr. Weasley that William is an excellent cursebreaker to include ALL that the duty entails." She glared at her sixth year prefect regretting her decision to let him keep his badge at the moment. While his conduct at the moment was not enough to warrant taking it away like the train incident was, it was still rather embarrassing to have to deal with in front of the entire house.

"Everyone, quiet down and have a seat. It appears we have to have a house meeting. Now sit down and listen, everyone please. You as well Mr. Thatcher. Though, you may already have your career planned out it would not hurt for you to be a part of the conversation."

Seeing most of the seats taken, Salvadore made his way to the far wall furthest from the Gryffindor trio. He appraised each of them, Ron looked back defiantly as though to dare him to deny what he had said. Harry looked back appraisingly, through some conversations with Bill, he wasn't surprised by what Ron was accusing, he just wasn't sure how the new information fit in the puzzle that was Thatcher and Malfoy. 'There's just no way that Malfoy would associate himself with a muggleborn' was Harry's train of thought.

Seeing everyone situated the Gryffindor head of house decided to start the meeting.

"Hearing the discussion today makes me fear that Hogwarts has been doing a disservice to students for the last few years" she started, letting the murmurs her opening statement caused to die down.

"It has been standard practice these last few decades to let the new apprentices learn on the job exactly how to apply the hard earned skills learned here at Hogwarts. This policy probably would not have changed save for the fact of Mr. Thatcher's attendance this term. "

"What do you mean professor?" asked Hermione

"Since the war with Grindelwald Hogwarts has not trained dark arts. This is due to the fact that the Wizengamot putting pressure on Hogwarts to not help in creating future dark lords." Letting out what sounded like a sigh of regret, she continued.

"There were many reforms made in the way young wizards and witches were taught. Many of the books that contained extensive knowledge of the dark arts were taken to the Headmasters private study to be loaned to students who would be judged as responsible enough to handle the knowledge they contained. No Miss Granger, it is the Headmaster who chooses and keeps the criteria he is looking for to himself." The common room broke into light laughter at the pout that adorned Hermione's face. Anyone who knew her would know how much the thought of earning the right to look through those books would have excited her, even if she chose not to read them, the fact that she had been chosen was enough of an honor for her.

"One of the most contentious changes made here at the school were the changes to career advisement" the professor continued gaining everyone's attention once again.

"It was decided, after some heated debate, that to further guide future generations from dangerous teachings that career descriptions be watered down. It was the hope that if students were shocked at what some of the more, shall we say…glamorous occupations actually entailed and leave for safer occupations. Those who stayed in their professions would obviously be brought to the attention to the ministry for monitoring."

"This did turn out to be a rather effective technique. Those that managed to stay in the professions of being an Auror, Cursebreaker, and the like were usually from families that were able to prepare their children themselves." She sighed when she saw Hermione tentatively raise her hand.

"What about muggleborns professor? Our parents certainly can't prepare us for occupations that they couldn't possibly know about and while the library has descriptions of the various occupations, they certainly don't include any details of the day-to-day life and activities involved" Hermione said, feeling her own ire at being denied crucial information rise with each spoken word.

"Like you'd have any problems finding a job Hermione" Ron scoffed causing several chuckles of agreement throughout the room.

"That's not the point Ron!"

"Children, silence!" the professor interrupted before the meeting could be derailed.

"I know what you mean Miss Granger and I doubt you would not have any problems in your future profession."

Salvadore was just barely able to keep the scoff from being verbalized. He believed the professor that Hermione wouldn't have any problems but there was a reason why she wouldn't that wasn't being explained. It wasn't his place to step in though.

'Just two years' he thought. 'Just two years and I'm out of this country to live my life.'

"With that said" the professor continued "I am aware that many of you are under the impression that Mr. Thatcher is a dark wizard of some sort. I can assure you that he is not. There are many practices in the wizarding world that are as unsavory as you can imagine. Some of them are born of evil and some of them, like those associated with Aurors and Cursebreakers are born out of necessity."

Seeing the youngest Weasely's about to speak she cut them off.

"I can assure you Mr. and Miss. Weasley that I have no doubt that William is as committed to the light as he was when he first arrived here. He is, however, a cursebreaker and a good one from what my sources have told me. That does not change what he has done and the price he has paid for it. Please speak to your brother. He will be able to explain things better"

"Normally I would not have bothered with such a meeting but we have not had such a situation arise in Hogwarts before and I will not have the Gryffindor common room degenerate into some kind of vigilante free-for-all."

"While Mr. Thatcher may be rough around the edges, so to speak. He is not a dark wizard. He was properly vetted and approved prior to the ministry awarding him his scholarship. His recommendations are above reproach. While it is…unusual for someone to come from a cursebreaking background into Hogwarts at this point, it should not influence how we would greet any other witch or wizard. Do not let his chosen occupation and experiences skew your perceptions. If any of you have any concerns, bring them to me after classes in my office. Prefects, please complete your duties for the night. Goodnight"

The professor strode out the room leaving her house silent in her wake. Despite her words some were still torn on the subject of Salvadore Thatcher. While it had only been a week, the rumor mill had taken Ron's concerns to the point where they were afraid that Salvadore was plotting to kill them all in their sleep.

Seeing the whole of the common room's eyes on him, Salvadore simply shook his head and went to his dorm room. His eyes caught Herminones' and seeing her apologetic smile and shake of her head he knew that they'd have to reschedule. Not that he minded, studying potions was really not something he felt like doing at the moment. A long night of relaxation and maybe some personal research would be in order or maybe just a long nights sleep. That idea appealed to him more than anything so sleep it was.

Coming out of the shower he noticed that his dorm mates still hadn't made it up themselves. Setting up his wards, he promptly shut his curtains and got comfortable under his blankets. Feeling Kat curl up next to him he idly scratched her while he plotted out the next day's activities. He really needed to get a letter to the Skewer's soon. Samantha was going to talk his hear off then hex the other for not writing sooner.


	14. Chapter 13

AN: Usual disclaimer, cause if I owned the stuff I wouldn't be doing it for free. Thanks for those who have taken the time to read this and have been enjoying the story.

**Hogwarts Main Hall**

Salvadore wasn't sure what the tower was going to be like now. While Sunday's were a day where he wouldn't follow his usual routine of exercises, it didn't mean that he was inactive. He still got up at his normal time, noticing that his roommates had at some point made it to their own beds, he had made his way exploring the castle grounds rather than his usual run. He made his way over to breakfast as soon as it was available and then promptly made his way to the library.

Sunday was, thankfully, an unspoken lazy day in the castle. He did not see anyone during breakfast, only running into a couple of underclassmen on his way out, grumbling about needing to get some extra flying time before Quiditch tryouts. The library was just as empty as the Great Hall had been.

Deciding to distract himself in research, he began his search for his desired texts.

'Let's see here, if I were a book on wand making, where would I be' he thought as he started searching the aisles. Finding several books that appealed to his curiosity he found an out of way corner to read and take notes. So engrossed in his reading he didn't notice when Hermione approached with her own stack of books.

"Salvadore?"

Broken from his musings he looked up to see his tentatively labeled study-buddy. It had only been a week and he knew a lot could change in the near term, especially after Professor McGonagall's talk. While she didn't look like she had rushed to any judgements, the hard truths of his chosen profession were not pretty and people usually had a hard time overlooking them.

"Hey, good morning. So what happened after I scurried upstairs?" He knew it sounded a little tactless but the subject was going to come up anyway so why beat around the bush.

'Might as well get the elephant out of the room' Hermione thought.

"We talked, after we got some facts straight. When the professor walked in Ron was being rather vocal about his distrust of you due to some things that he noticed about you. After the lecture, it was actually Dean who asked some rather pointed questions to Ron about cursebreaking since Bill is one as well."

She let out a sigh before continuing to describe the fiasco the common room hosted moments later.

"Unfortunately, Ron couldn't answer any of his questions despite spending a summer with him before our third year. Someone pointed out that, over that summer, it would have been the perfect chance to ask his oldest brothers about the electives and chosen their professions to help him make a last minute decision about which electives to choose."

Huffing in annoyance she continued.

"I mean honestly, who goes about spending summers with older employed brothers without asking them about what their jobs are like and general academic advice?" she practically yelled.

Salvadore had a suspicion that she was the one who asked the question and had asked that particular question last night as well. Though probably with much more vehemence.

"Well, apparently that's why Ginny hasn't really tried to give you a hard time of things as she DID ask her brothers and was well aware of some of the less glamorous duties their jobs entailed. She was concerned with yours and Bill's initial meeting but after seeing him in the morning and hearing him say to not worry about it, she did."

"After that it sort of became a pile on Ron. Since he was the one who was doing most of the pushing of you being dark and then discovering that he didn't even know what his own brother, who had the same occupation, did well…it really wasn't pretty. His motives came into question, some questioned his intelligence, one even accused him of being a Death Eater trying to stir up dissention in the school" she spat out the last point with the same disgust it incurred the night before when she first heard it.

"Harry, Ginny, and I had to step in after that and calm everyone down, though I think it was only after a Bat Bogey hex that anyone bothered to listen. Eventually most of the others decided to just disregard his views and ask Ginny about Bill since she talked to him and Charlie before the world cup a couple of years ago."

"It was weird seeing how many stayed around and talked about careers. After Ginny, people started asking Lavender about her families enchanting business, then they Pavarti about her family's business. There's so much that isn't talked about in the classroom it's almost discouraging. Did you know , that for enchanting they sometimes sacrifice animals to affect the duration or intensity of the enchantment?"

Seeing her exasperated state, Salvadore wisely decided to refrain from answering yes to keep her ire pointed away from him. One tended to see a lot of different magics being used at a camp. Some of the out of hobby, some would do it as a side project, like his rings and others just thought it was cool to teach the camp kid a thing or two while they sat around bored.

"So what's the verdict?" he asked, trying to gauge whether or not he could bring his wards down or upgrade them.

"Well, you're not a pariah if that's what your worried about. I think most have taken a wait and see approach. Harry, Ginny, and I had a long talk with Ron. He's going to stop with his rhetoric if only grudgingly. Now that he knows everything that Bill has done, he's more willing to accept things."

Seeing his nod of acknowledgement she decided to ask him a straight question. While she knew he must have taken certain acts, hearing him acknowledge them was another.

"Salvadore, I hate to ask this question but I need to hear it for myself…have you…I mean did you ever have to…" Seeing her failing resolve, he reluctantly decided to sate her curiosity.

"If you're asking if I've ever executed those captured at the end of a raid? No, I have not. The Skewers and camp leads in general quite adamant against underage wizards and witches doing those deeds. The reason is actually due to the wiccan rule of three. The general perception is we children have the rest of our lives to screw up and be right bastards but we need not start so early so they're pretty careful about where the deed is done and make sure we're nowhere near when it happens. Helps preserve out 'innocence' they claim."

Seeing a question about to spring up, he decided to preempt her and continued talking.

"Don't ask me how wicca came to play a part in magical practices. I don't know. The best guess anyone has is that during the witch hunts, it was common practice for the expedition to bring their families that way they wouldn't be left undefended while they were away. It's believed that at least one of the wives was a muggle wiccan who brow beat her husband to stop using some of the kids to do some of the less savory acts like the executions or animal harvesting. Eventually it just became practice to keep the underage away from the executions."

"The wands are usually gathered once everything has settled down and recovered and tested to see if any are a suitable match to use as a substitute. Some wards are designed to attack the wand trying to break them, so best lose a wand that's a close match than one that's properly matched."

He noticed that she still looked a little apprehensive about something and knew he had to give a full answer. She was too smart to not realize how he answered the question and would only dig further to get the full answer. He'd might as well save them both the awkwardness.

"Twice" he said simply at her unspoken question.

"Once while defending against a raid and the other while rescuing a female member of our camp that had been taken during a raid's retreat. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not proud of what I've done but if placed in the same situations I'd do the exact same things again."

"I think I understand Salvadore but it's still a little uncomfortable to think about, you know?" she said quietly. She wasn't a fool, she knew bad people existed in the world. Some of them were depraved beyond reason but she had held the belief that the magical world was different, that it was beyond such acts. The last few years had certainly shaken her resolve on that belief but the last couple of days were the metaphorical nail in the coffin for her.

She had to prepare. She knew she would be a target at some point. Was what she knew enough? Could she pull the proverbial trigger when push became shove? Harry certainly helped last year but they worked mostly with defensive spells and tactics. When it mattered could any of them cast the spell that would take someone's life? She knew she had gotten lucky at the ministry last term, they all had. She was the only line of defense her parents had she realized. Thinking of them she reached her decision.

"Salvadore?" she called, her voice barely above a whisper. "Can you help me with my silent casting?"

He was caught off guard with the question. How they went from talking about things he'd sooner forget to classwork was beyond him. He looked at her with confusion clearly etched on his face and he new that whatever it was, she was asking for help with something that went beyond classwork.

He considered his options. On the one hand, he had already rebuffed an effort to work on the casting earlier in the week. However, the reason for the refusal may not be a factor if what they talked about earlier really made any difference with Ron. So when added all together Salvadore came away with a few simple facts. First, the request was sincere. Second, there was really nothing preventing him from doing it and third, she was a girl who wasn't out to harm him who asked politely.

"When?" he asked, still curious about her request for help. She was doing quite well in comparison to the rest of their classmates. Granted he was doing the best but that was only because the Skewers had him casting silently for the past year. After all, if there were two things there was plenty of in a breakers camp, they were time and tutors.

"How about later today? After lunch?" she answered with a hopeful tone.

"Sure, meet you in the Great Hall? We can try to find a suitable place soon as we're done eating."

Seeing her nod in acceptance, the two settled in for a quiet round of studying and not taking. Hermione had left after a couple of hours to check up on Harry and Ron. She could tell last night was particularly troubling for Ron and she wanted to make sure that he was alright.

**Great Hall**

Salvadore was enjoying a much needed lunch. His research had gone surprisingly well. Now all he needed to do was make it out to the Forbidden Forest after a thunderstorm. No biggie. Just need to head out into unfamiliar lands full of unfamiliar creatures of unknown degrees of danger. No worry at all.

There wasn't much time before the winter for this to happen. If it didn't happen now then he'd have to wait until next year for his opportunity. He was hoping to have things finished before going back to the camps over the summer. So he sat down and mentally crossed his fingers that an opportunity would arrive soon.

He was trying to figure out just how he would help Hermione with her silent casting when a cough interrupted him. Looking up across the table he saw Ron standing with his head down looking rather reluctant about something. After a nudge from Hermione, Ron shot her a glare before looking down again and muttering out a mumbled "Sorry".

"Excuse me?" Salvadore asked in obvious confusion.

"I said I'm sorry okay!?" Ron nearly shouted, blushing in embarrassment at the attention he was drawing to himself. Deciding to save his best mate, Harry stepped up to hopefully clarify things.

"He's just trying to apologize for the way he's been acting this week. Last night was a bit of an eye opener and after realizing how much of a git he's been, he's hoping to let bygones be bygones" Harry filled in while elbowing Ron who was nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, sure…umm…apology accepted" Salvadore said uncertainly. While he wasn't quite sure about what Ron had done to require an apology, they hadn't said a word to each other all week or even looked in each other's direction, he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth and took the opportunity to resolve a potential conflict before it could start.

Ron smiled in relief and nodded his head in favor of his accepted apology. The trio took some seats across from Salvadore to eat their own lunch. Salvadore shrugged to himself and resumed his thoughts of how to help Hermione when his thoughts were interrupted again.

"So which Quidditch teams to you follow?" asked Ron right before taking a bite out of some chicken.

"Sorry, don't follow" he replied distractedly, beginning to feel annoyed that his thoughts kept being distracted.

"You know, quidditch! It's only the best game in the world. I'm sure you've heard of it even in the Ministry schools! I mean the world cup was even held here in England a couple years ago, you've had to have about Krump and…"

Salvadore tuned out the excited red head and sent a questioning glance toward Hermione. A roll of her eyes was his only response telling him that this was a likely scenario whenever quidditch was brought up around Ron. Deciding to end to potential torture before it got too bad Salvadore raised his hand to interrupt Ron as he was describing the virtues of his beloved Chudley Cannons.

"Sorry, I fear I didn't make myself very clear. I didn't mean I didn't understand you, I meant that I don't follow quidditch. I can't even really say that I like it." Salvadore stated calmly, not realizing that what he said was an equivalent to sacrilege to the youngest male Weasely.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, Salvadore looked up to find a varying looks on the faces of his housemates. Hermione's held surprise, like she never expected to hear those words uttered from the mouth of a member of the male species, Harry's face was a mixture of surprise and confusion, like he had heard that there were some people that didn't like quidditch but never expected to actually meet one of them. Ron, however, was flabbergasted to be put simply. He was so shocked in fact, that he had stopped midway from taking another bite out of his food.

Not sure what else to do, Salvadore explained himself.

"Well it's not to say that I don't like sports but quidditch just doesn't make any sense. 150 points just for catching the snitch? Only 10 for a goal? No time limit? The fact that one of the decisive factors in a team's ability to win is something that the players have nothing to do with? At least in Auto racing the cars have to be properly maintained in order to function properly. The only time a broom needs to be replaced is when the enchantments start to fade or someone does something foolish and breaks it."

"Even in the matches that are close, it hardly seems fair to give one team such a huge margin of victory just because the snitch was caught. The fact that a match can last anywhere from less than a minute to until God knows when hardly makes it easy to sit and enjoy. Don't get me wrong, I like sports but I find myself more a fan of muggle sports, like football, hockey, or basketball. Though I must say that I think American football is quickly becoming my favorite." He finished just as Ron recovered.

"How can you say that!? Quidditch is the greatest game ever!" Ron yelled, not caring the attention he was drawing to himself this time.

"I'll have to respectfully disagree. I find muggle sports to be much more organized and competitive. Seeing someone making a 'miraculous' grab of the snitch they are chasing just doesn't compare to seeing your favorite team scoring in the final moments in a game securing the win, in my book."

Putting his hand up to forestall any further arguments Salvadore started to gather his belongings.

"We'll just have to agree to disagree. Hermione, I'll meet you in the charms classroom when you're ready." With a quick wave goodbye he went off on his way, glad that he managed to avoid a quidditch discussion with a fanatic that was at the level of one Ron Weasely.

"Mental that one." Ron said as he resumed eating. Hermione looked at Harry and rolled her eyes in response to his shrug. She made sure to get a good meal in before making her way over to meet with Salvadore. She wasn't sure just how he would help her but she always looked forward to learning something new.


	15. Chapter 14

**AN:** Standard disclaimer as I would be living very comfortably if I were to own any of the works referenced below. Thank you all for reading. If I haven't mentioned it before, please feel free to leave a review. Constructive criticism is always welcomed.

**Malfoy Manor**

The dark lord was in a pleasant mood. It was the calm before the storm and in his opinion, he was the stormbringer. Being revealed earlier than he wanted was nothing but an inconvenience. Fudge was a fool and the new one would be proven to be just and impotent. With Amelia Bones out of the picture the Ministry could hardly be counted on to put up any kind of competent defense against his plots and schemes.

He had picked up exactly where he left off sixteen years ago. Sowing fear and paranoia through the wizarding world until it crumbled to its knees. The best part was that he didn't even have to play a direct part, at least not yet. His loyal followers were doing a more than satisfactory job of it on their own. Those that had failed him earlier in the summer could stew in Azkaban for a while longer to help them remember the price of failure.

His thoughts were interrupted by the opening of a door. Looking back he saw one of his most dedicated followers. Bellatrix quickly approached her master and kneeled down, waiting to be addressed before she dared speak. She had been learning the price of failure over the summer. Others in the home often heard when the lessons were taking place.

"Tell me Bellatrix, what news from our little dragon?" he asked rhetorically. He knew the answer of course. A wizard of his stature did not ask questions, he merely had his followers confirm answers. It is what made him their lord and any would rue the day should they ever not meet his expectations.

"My lord…he states he has found the room but has not begun the search yet. Some time is needed before the proper security can be in place. He has other plans in motion in the meantime. He will of course keep us updated on his progress" she spoke with more than a little nervousness in her voice. The price for failure was great and with the others from the ministry in Azkaban she had been paying for their share as well. She was hoping that the answer satisfied him.

"Excellent my dear…and his other task?" he inquired. Some news from earlier in the week had sent his followers in a scramble to confirm some information. Once his suspicions were confirmed an additional task was placed. Some entertainment was always a good thing and it would be a treat to see just what skills the youngest Malfoy could bring to the table.

"He has made contact my lord but…is it wise to ARGHGHGHG!" her question was interrupted by Voldemort's cruciatus curse.

"You dare question your lord!?" he asked while keeping her under his curse.

"N-Never m-my lord" she forced out while trying to keep her bearings through the pain.

"Oh dear Bellatrix, I fear that this summer's lessons have not taken hold" he said while smiling cruelly.

"But worry not my faithful one. We still have plenty of time to teach you correctly…CRUCIO" he cast his torture curse before she could even manage to lift her head. Her screams echoed throughout the manor letting all know that their master was not to be disturbed.

**Hogwarts**

For the hundredth time during the week, Salvadore felt that his status in the house had taken two steps back from Professor McGonnagal's rescue from pariah status the previous week. It wasn't that he was being labled a dark lord, no, it was something for more insidious in some eyes. Apparently he was poaching someone else's girl.

After one week, Hermione Granger had found him worthy as a study partner. Between classes where she would sit next to him, practical sessions where he tried to help her with her silent casting and regular study times after dinner, Salvadore was finding himself in the presence of the Gryffindor bookworm for the greater part of the day.

It didn't matter that most of the conversations in the hallways between classes were academic in nature, often discussing subjects like how Edgar's Third Law of Arithmatic Convergance would affect various spells. It didn't matter that during their study sessions they sat across from each other and would hardly speak a word to each other unless they wanted a second opinion on something or requesting a book from the other's stack. It most certainly didn't matter that for all intents and purposes she was an unattached witch and was free to associate with whom she wanted, when she wanted, and why she wanted.

No, it was a foregone conclusion that Miss Hermione Granger was 'destined' to be with either Harry Potter or Ron Weasely. By Wednesday the Hogwarts rumor mill was portraying Salvadore as some kind of Casanova trying to get back at Ron for his earlier treatment of him. Ron had returned to glaring at Salvadore whenever he came in sight and Hermione usually showed up for their study sessions muttering about 'stupid boys who couldn't even be bothered to keep their arguments straight'.

All that said, Salvadore was becoming a little nervous with today's practice with Hermione. While she was becoming proficient with silent casting, she noticed that the power of her silent spells were only about half of her vocal spells. He knew it would equalize eventually but she had done some research and found something that might help. She had him meet her here so they could get some work in before she went to support her best friends during their Quidditch try-outs.

Salvadore had a couple of ideas of what it was she stumbled across and one of them in particular troubled him immensely. Yes, it was probably the most effective way to increase her mental abilities but the process was definitely more involved than he'd wish to get into. Could he help her, yes. Would he help her, most definitely not.

**Gryffindor Common Room**

Harry saw his chance. The summer was a little painful to watch as his two best friends danced around each other. He thought something had started to brew between them last year with all the patrolling they had to do together. Yes, it would be a little awkward at first but he really couldn't blame him. Hermione was quite pretty.

The circumstances really couldn't have set themselves up any better. No sooner than Ron get's to let go of his presumption that Salvadore was a dark wizard, Hermione starts spending more time with their new housemate and the rumors start flying. Ron's jealousy was inevitable and so much like the Yule Ball a couple years ago. Harry had enough on his plate in his own opinion. While the verdict was still out on their new classmate he really didn't need or want to deal with more of Ron's attempts to get in their female best friends good graces or hear his grumblings when they his half-hearted efforts failed.

"You okay there mate?" Harry inquired. He knew Ron would be nervous for the trials so today would make for the best attempt. Hopefully his efforts would distract Ron from his nervousness and get him to finally take that step that's been annoying him since the summer.

"Yeah, you know, just getting right in the head for today" Ron said, already showing how nervous he was.

"Been a crazy week hasn't it?" Harry asked while trying to figure out how to broach the subject.

"I guess…hey Harry, do you think…you know…that Hermione and Salvadore are…"Ron mumbled out. Harry saw his chance to prod his friend a little in the right direction. He had to agree with Hermione sometimes about Ron's emotional range but for the sake of his own sanity he had to try. Seeing them dance around each other just to take two steps back and the last two weeks alone made him desperate to help them.

"Just rumors mate, I mean, unless you want to go to the library and chaperone them while getting your homework done" he joked trying to put his friend at ease.

Ron snorted in response.

"Seriously though, if you like her, just ask her, it'll be a little weird at first but I'll get used to it." There, he put it out there. 'Merlin, how is it girls do this. It's exhausting' Harry thought as Ron spluttered while trying to articulate a response.

"What are you talking about!?" Ron asked, his face was blushing as he tried to formulate a denial.

"Mate, I know you like her. It was pretty obvious since the start of the summer. If you had shut up about those stupid O. you might have already been together. If you're worried about the rumors just ask her out and be done with it." He said, hoping that the plain talk would drive his friend to do what was needed.

"What are you on about? It's Hermione! I'd never…I mean…it's just…" Hermione heard Ron start to reply from the stairs and paused as she heard her name. She didn't want to eavesdrop but her curiosity got the better of her and she decided to stay where she was and listen to what was said.

"You go mental or something there Harry?" Ron asked trying to sound nonchalant despite the blush on his cheeks. "It's Hermione you're talking about here right? Why would I…I mean…why would I worry about some stupid rumors. It's Hermione we're talking about here you know. Just worried about her"

"You just asked about those rumors…"

"As a friend" Ron interrupted before Harry could fully make his point. "I'm just asking as a friend. She is our best friend you know. I'd think you'd be a little more concerned for our friend considering Draco acts all quiet when Thatcher is around. That's all. She's a friend Harry, that's all"

Harry's retort was cut short as heard steps coming down the stairs. Looking up he say his other best friend make a bee-line toward the exit without so much as glancing in their direction.

"Hermione? Where are you…" he started to ask before he saw her eyes starting to fill with tears as she fought to maintain her composure.

"Don't worry about me guys, just going to get some extra work done before your tryouts later. I'll see you there." She said quickly. She knew if she looked in _his _direction she'd probably say something she'd regret. She was going to be late meeting up with Salvadore and she had some questions she was hoping he'd have an answer for, no time for dilly dallying.

Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath as she left. He started the conversation and new that he'd have to try and set it right later. He spared a glance at his ginger best friend and noticed him sitting with his hands covering his face. After a moment Ron sat back and just stared up at the ceiling.

"Bloody hell" was all the red-head had to say. Harry couldn't think of anything else to add to that so just sat down and offered a game of chess while they waited for the time to head down to the quidditch pitch.

**Girls Bathroom**

She would not cry. She absolutely refused to cry. Hermione splashed some water on her face and after looking at herself in the mirror took a deep breath and let out a sigh. She wondered why things had to be so difficult between her and Ron. One minute as tight as thieves and the next…well, she didn't really know what else they could be described as but it was far from being potential romantic interests.

She started to hear Fleur's voice in her head from one of their last conversations at The Burrow.

_"Eet ees a wonder how so many children who we're all raised in dee same house, from dee same parents can all grow up so deefrently. I weesh I knew how to solve dees riddle that is Ronald but all I can tink of is the same advice my mother gave me about William" Fleur giggled at the curious look that was thrown her way._

_"Molly is not dee only one that wants my William to cut his 'air" she answered with a conspiratol wink. _

_"Eet must be a thing with mozzers because I love my Williams hair. But I am getting off topic no? My mozzer knew one of my reasons for coming 'ere was to pursue William. While she did not understand my attraction for an 'Englishman', as she put it, she understood and supported my decision. Before I left she told me this."_

_ "Dee heart wants what dee heart wants. However, do not forget that without your mind in agreement, your spirit will never know true 'appiness. Eef there ever comes a time when you cannot think of a reason worthwhile to stay, den go and find your 'appiness somewhere else because no woman deserves zee 'eartache from unrequited love. You are young and beautiful, do not waste your love on someone who has proven unworthy of it."_

She was just being silly, wasn't she? Hermione knew Ron liked her. He must have with the way he'd been acting but…shaking her head to clear her thoughts she began to focus on the activities she was going to ask Salvadore to help with. 'Now is not the time to lose focus due to stupid teenage drama.' With a final sigh she checked the mirror to make sure no obvious signs of distress were visible and made her way to meet with her self-claimed study partner.

Hermione walked into the empty classroom and saw him working on some parchment. She wasn't able to see what it was as he noticed her arrival and promptly put it away. While she was curious about what it was she wasn't going to let herself get derailed than she already was that day.

"What do you know about Occlumency?" she asked.

Salvadore let his shoulders sag as his suspicions were proven correct. Hermione looked on in confusion and Salvadore started to gather his belongings and stood up to leave.

"Wait what are you…" she started to ask before getting interrupted.

"No" Salvadore said while looking straight at her.

"Why not!?" she demanded. He obviously knew how to help her by his behavior. This wasn't exactly something she could ask from a teacher judging by Harry's experience with Snape and none of the material she found gave any details on even where to start.

"Because I don't have the time, resources, or desire to drag you through the process that's called training to be an Occlumens" he stated while walking toward the door. He stopped and turned around as he felt her grab his arm.

"You know it don't you, Occumency?" she asked already knowing the answer. His facial expressions spoke of the experience he had with it. It did not look like a pleasant experience.

"Yes, I do. It's required to begin work as a cursebreaker or even a cursebreakers assistant. What do you know of it and why do you want to learn it?" he responded. He'd might as well get the full answer before he revealed to her why this was a bad idea with him.

"I don't know much. Harry tried learning it last term but it didn't work. All I know is that it's suppose to help with casting silently but none of the books I've found tell how to learn it, just the benefits from knowing it. I seem to have hit a plateau in my casting and I know this will get me the edge I need to make my silent casting more proficient."

Salvadore snorted in response to her information or lack thereof in her case.

"Yeah, that sounds about right" he gestured for her to sit while he settled in to explain what he knew to her.

"The reason there's no information on it is because it needs a legilimens to accomplish the training. Without that there's no point in even trying. The method is deceptively simple. Sit in front of a legilimens and have him read your mind. When you can kick them out consciously and deliberately, you've learned it" he finished with a shrug.

"But how…" she started but was interrupted again.

"Everyone is different and every technique is different. Some people don't even have the ability to learn because they can't handle the training. Just as every mind is different, everyone must come up with their own way to defend their mind. It took me almost a month of almost nightly sessions before my mentors considered me good enough. It hurts, a lot. Imagine your head being squeezed in a vice while someone is driving a nail right between your eyes. The only way to make the pain stop is for either the person to stop the spell or you pass out" he looked at her slightly green complexion and hoped that she wouldn't pursue the idea anymore.

"That's it. No secret technique there. Just endure it until you learn to stop it and it's considered bad form to ask another occlumens their technique, so please don't ask."

Hermione stood there silently, letting his words sink in. Thinking that they were done Salvadore turned to leave when her voice made him pause.

"Do you know how to cast it?" she asked.

"What?" Salvadore answered. Not quite believing what he heard.

"Legiliemency, do you know how to cast it. I can endure it, I know I can" Hermione straightened her back and squared her shoulders hoping that it would show her resolve despite her nervousness.

"You really don't know what you're asking here" he replied.

"So you do?"

He evaluated her, while she seemed willing he decided to give her all the details involved to see if she still wanted to go through it.

"It may take a week, a month, and I've heard a few cases where it took almost a year. Are you prepared for that amount of pain over that length of time?"

Her eyes looked unsure but she nodded.

"Do you trust me?" he asked

He looked her in the eyes and after some hesitation she nodded again.

"Most of the time, occlumency is taught be older family members or by a master to apprentice. Can you imagine why?" Salvadore was about to get the crux of the matter. He was sure her decision would change by then.

"I don't know" she said simply.

"For family, usually because they already know everything about you so there's rarely a risk of finding out something surprising. In that case finding a family member refusing to undergo the training is a huge sign that they've done something wrong. Masters do it so they can ensure that the apprentice will keep their secrets and confirm that they chose an appropriate apprentice. Some may even change their minds about the apprentice, regardless of if they learned it or not, based on what they learned during the training. Are you seeing a pattern here?" He noticed her eyes go wide at the recognition of just what the training would entail.

"So I ask again, do you trust me? Do you trust me to know every little hiding place you put your most sacred mementos? Do you trust me to know what all your ambitions are and your plans on accomplishing them?" he started walking toward her and backed her into a wall where he placed his hands on either side of her head. He saw her blush at their proximity and decided to go for the kill.

"Do you trust me to know just who's name you cry out as you pleasure yourself when no one else is around?" he whispered into her ear and heard her gasp in shock.

He backed away quickly, a little surprised that he didn't earn himself a knee to his danglies for his efforts. He noticed her anger starting to come around and cut her off before she could start.

"Those are the memories I'd have to go for. Anyone can endure pain for a time. But in order to get you to force me out you have to have an incentive. There has to be a reason, something to strive to keep secret. Keep in mind, there is no working up to anything. There's only sitting down and then pain. Those intimate memories and thoughts are the only things that will drive you to protect yourself. So again, do you trust me?"

Hermione looked at him with fierceness and made him brace to dodge should she choose to start hexing. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath letting the anger fall off of her. In a voice just barely above a whisper she answered.

"I don't know"

"Good, it's not something to take on lightly" he said with an obvious sight of relief.

"So how am I suppose to improve then?" she huffed in obvious frustration.

They sat in silence as they let their thoughts work out possible solutions. Hermione was grateful that he had decided to stick around and help her despite shooting down her original idea for the day. When he finally spoke, she almost jumped as he startled her.

"Tell me Hermione, how comfortable do you think you would be being in a state of sensory deprivation?" he asked while still working out his plan.

"What do you have in mind?" she asked with a little skepticism.

"Hear me out here. If we take away your senses, then you can practice both verbal and nonverbal spells and in theory, you should be able to concentrate on how your magic feels as you cast. Once you notice this it should only be a matter of time before you can make your magic match when you cast nonverbally" Salvadore didn't bother looking up as he knew she'd probably be thinking of the possibility herself.

He started looking through a first-aid book his brother had passed on to him when he first started going to the camps with him. He got in the habit of keeping it either on him or in his bag as it had some nifty spells that could help in an emergency. Lord knew he had cast the numbing charm on himself enough times through the years.

After getting the appropriate charms on her they began their practice. While she did not get the full results she wanted Hermione find a noticeable increase in power for her nonverbal spells. However, she became so focused on the new training regimen that she forgot about the quidditch tryouts. By chance she asked Salvadore the time thinking she would be cutting it close only to find that the tryouts would have been finished an hour earlier. She quickly cancelled the charms and bade Salvadore goodbye.

She rushed back to the common room to apologize and find out the results berating herself the entire way. She met Ginny and Dean walking out as she reached the Fat Lady.

"Where were you!?" Ginny demanded. It wasn't like Hermione to miss an event like this. While she may not enjoy quidditch she never passed up the opportunity to support her friends.

"Sorry, I was studying and lost track of time" was her sheepish reply. "How did it go?" she asked only to be confused by their conflicting faces. Dean looked excited while Ginny looked disgusted.

"It was brilliant!" started Dean. "I made reserve chaser but the real show was the keepers." Hermione winced at the thought of missing Ron's tryout. From Dean's tone it was quite exciting.

"Not sure what got into him but Ron seemed to have a chip on his shoulder all afternoon. It worked for him though. Him and that McLaggen bloke were the only ones left after the tryouts. Harry was going to keep them both on and make a game time decision on the starter but they both nixed the idea. They settled on a playoff. First one miss a block lost the spot and it was intense." Ginny nodded and Deans description and let him continue.

"They set up on opposite ends and let us chasers run drills against them. Took about 45 minutes but Ron made a brilliant save by swinging back under his broom to kick a quaffle away and Ginny sneaked a goal just past Cormac's fingertips on a fake." Dean finished with obvious joy at the memory.

"It was pretty brilliant. You should have been there" Ginny said with accusation in her eyes. She looked down however and tried to warn Hermione about the going-ons of the common room.

"You probably don't want to go in there yet. Just…go to the library or something and ask Harry about it later." Ginny finished hoping Hermione didn't have to see things first hand.

"What are you…" Hermione never got to finish her question as the portrait opened again and allowed Hermione to see Lavender Brown and Ron sticking their tongues down each other's throats. Hermione gasped at the sight and felt something inside of her, like a small flicker of flame, gently die out.

"Ron!" Ginny yelled getting the other couples attention so they'd stop.

Ron jumped away from his new girlfriend much to Lavender's humor. Ron's eyes widened when he noticed Hermione standing with his sister but quickly got distracted as he heard Lavender's giggling voice.

"Don't wait up for us, we're going to do some exploring" Lavender said with a not so subtle wink. Ron's eyes became unfocused as his new girlfriend grabbed his hand and dragged him out and down one of the hallways.

"Oh merlin, are you alright Hermione? She just jumped him at the end of the tryouts and they've been carrying on like that ever since." Ginny said as she looked at Hermione with concern.

Hermione was broken from her daze by Ginny's voice and had to ask her to repeat herself.

"Are you okay Hermione? I wish you didn't have to find out that way" Ginny stated sincerely.

"No, it's okay. Just…wow. I guess I'm just…" Hermione took a moment to compose herself from her shock. "I'm just shocked at the suddenness I suppose" she tried to hide the sadness from her voice and she was reasonable sure she was successful.

"Hermione…"

"I'm fine Ginny, Ron is one of my best friends. While I may not approve of his choice, it's his life. I just hope he's happy with his decision" Ginny's eyes went wide at the subtext of Hermione's words.

Hermione walked through the portrait and went straight to her bed. While there was a sadness within her, she felt lighter. While she couldn't quite explain it, she was sure that all she needed was a good night's sleep and she'd be fine. She wondered if Ron was still going to make time to study with her and Harry and after some thought she decided that she really didn't care.

**AN: ** A little longer than normal. But thanks for reading.


	16. Chapter 15

**AN:** Standard disclaimer. I own nothing or I wouldn't be renting right now.

**Hogwarts Great Hall**

Salvadore was sitting at dinner staring at a letter the Skewers owl, Hooter, had dropped off. Considering their relatively quick reply from his letter last week he guessed that they were in a holding pattern on a dig. They often paused in their efforts while they waited for specialized supplies or brainstormed to figure out the best way to get through a particularly tricky ward scheme. Setting his plate and utensils aside he opened the letter and began to read.

_Salvadore,_

_We are very much glad to hear from you. We do apologize for out late reply. Unfortunately we will not be able to do much for details or niceties. Forces on both sides are on the move. Do not let the lack of obvious conflict lull you into a false sense of security. As far as we can tell we have been vetted and approached by both sides and have had some not very subtle monitoring charms placed in and around our offices._

_While we know why the Dark Lord would want and try to recruit us this other group is a bit of a mystery to us. No, it's not the Ministry, they currently believe that they can take care of things all on their own. No, while they have yet to identify themselves we can guess that they are aligned against the Dark Lord. To what they wish to accomplish beyond his defeat is unknown to us but I believe that we may go to ground soon enough._

_Should you need to contact us please use alternate means. Jonathan expects that this will be our last camp unless we can find a secure nation to settle into. If we can find somewhere before the attacks start we will contact you. However, as you know if things escalate before then, we may be stuck in a political limbo for some time._

_This leaves you in an untenable position. Jonathan says to blast it all and get out of there. Life as an assistant is at least alive he says. However, I cannot in good conscience ask you to abandon your dreams. At the pace things are moving behind the scenes, things can go pear shape anytime from three weeks to 3 years. Please consider your options carefully before making a decision. Jonathan Says to remember rule 9._

_Please remember, regardless of your decision, that we are very much proud of you. I'm sure that your brother and parents , rest their souls, would be equally if not more so. Remember to live your life Salvadore. _

_We will be stretching out time at this camp as long as we can while we make our preparations. We will certainly make contact with you as soon as possible. Keep safe Salvadore._

_Our warmest wishes,_

_-Samantha and Jonathan_

Salvadore read the letter again. The Thatchers had an extensive network of contacts on both sides of the upcoming conflicts. To move up their attempts to hide would mean that they were getting worried about some of these attempts. He'd lived with them for the last few years. For something to come about that would actually worry them was unfathomable.

Salvadore let out a sigh as he thought of the implications and what it meant for his current status in things. He quickly ate and made his way to the owlery, he had preparations to start making.

The following weeks had finally started to fall into a routine for Salvadore. Outside of a trip to the forest after a thunder storm, things had settled in quite nicely for him. How in the hell does one hide a giant in the woods for that matter. He had sneaked around until he found what he was looking for. The branch was certainly large enough and he could definitely tell from the nearby tree that lightning had done its part to help it separate from the larger whole. Giving a silent thanks to the powers-that-be, he made his way back to the castle, avoiding centaurs, acromantulas, hippogryphs, and a few migrating gryphons.

The fact that Hermione had found a study partner from Gryffindor raised quite a few eyebrows from the libraries usual patrons. Hermione had usually studied alone in the library with only a few instances of being accompanied by someone else. Usually around exams. The fact that someone from her own house was apparently keeping pace with her drew quite a bit of interest.

At first it was Harry who was joining them, not wanting to be alone in the common room while Ron and Lavender were out snogging. This was followed by Luna and Neville joining them. Neville since he saw the opportunity to get some help from, more than likely, the top two students in the house if not the entire school. Luna joined them since she enjoyed everyone's company and would take the opportunity to get a head start on her O.W.L preparation.

The most confusing of the happenings were Ron's reactions. Should Hermione within eyesight Ron lips would quickly find Lavenders for at least a quick kiss if not a full blown snog, if circumstances allowed. If she were to walk in view beside any other boy said kiss was usually preceded by a glare though she was usually too wrapped up in conversation to notice it.

The first Hogsmeade weekend was approaching and naturally dates and plans were being made. It was the Friday before and Salvadore was making a list of supplies he was going to be short of by the end of the year and other supplies. He was looking forward to the weekend as well as it was a chance to take a break from his normal routine.

Malfoy continued his odd behavior around Salvadore. Though the exchanges were nothing more than a head nod in greeting, the fact that Draco would even attempt to contact a muggleborn without insults was intriguing to everyone. Harry had practically interrogated Salvadore once on the way back to the common room, only to be left with more questions as Salvadore assured Harry that he had seen the extent of their exchanges himself. The fact that Salvadore was just as confused as the rest of them left everyone to wonder what was going on.

A cough interrupted Salvadore's scan of his list. Looking up he saw Draco standing near with a look that still said he'd rather be somewhere else.

"Thatcher" he greeted with what was becoming his trademarked half-nod.

Setting his parchment and quill down, Salvadore returned the nod and waited to see where this would go. After the initial meeting by the lake their interactions were relegated to hallway greetings.

"Word of your brother has reached certain ears Thatcher" Salvadore tensed at those words wondering where this was going.

"My condolences, I hear he was a powerful…wizard. So you know, certain parties have gained an interest in you, we will be watching." With that he turned around and left Salvadore to his thoughts.

'What in the living hell is all that about?' he thought, half startled with the exchange. 'If Potter is to believed than Draco is a death eater already. If that's true, why would be talking to me like…' and with that thought his brain engaged and was turning out a thousand thoughts a second.

'That makes no sense, why would he…it doesn't make any sense. I don't think many outside of McGonnagal and maybe the headmaster know of my connection to the Skewers but that's all I can think of. I'd best keep an eye out. I'm not sure what's going to happen if I'm left to disappoint them.'

Finding his head full of clutter and theories Salvadore gathered his belongings and decided to take a walk. Sometimes, one just required fresh air he decided. Trying to filter out the confusing interactions with the blonde Slytherin, Salvadore was thinking of his personal project.

'The base staff will be complete soon. I just need to draw up the rune design to inscribe. I'm going to need to make my own ink and figure out a way to transcribe the runes without anyone's help. Maybe a medical or magical art book would have what I need.' Now all he needed were directions to the bookshop. It was getting bitingly cold and he definitely did not fancy wandering the streets longer than he absolutely had to.

Waking up the next morning he quickly made his way down to breakfast, intent on finishing early so he could get to the village and back early enough to continue his research quietly while everyone else was at the village. He waved off an invite by Harry and Hermione to join them during their time in the village, though he did agree to travel down with them.

A strong gust of wind caught his attention. A familiar sensation made him look up and he caught sight of a shape blowing in the snow. He stared in the direction of the snow was traveling until a hand brought him out of his thoughts.

"You alright there Salvadore?"

Hearing Harry's voice, Salvadore looked at him, "Yeah" he said quickly. "Just thought I saw something" he said dismissively and made his way to the carriages. Harry and Hermione just looked at each other and shrugged at their schoolmates odd behavior.

They walked together for a ways, Harry and Hermione decided to show him where his destination was before heading off toward their own destination. Salvadore was getting edgier the longer they walked through the village. The signs kept repeating themselves. Salvadore was furiously trying to piece together the clues.

'Chaos, a sign of friendship, a prize, a journey, danger, and soon. What does it all mean?' One thing that did become immediately clear was that the signs stopped as soon as he walked through the door of the bookstore. 'They're not for me?' he asked himself slightly baffled. He quickly looked out the window and saw no more signs. He looked down to where he thought Harry and Hermione had gone off to and saw nothing. Walking back into the store, he found the texts he needed and headed back to the castle. The signs were not for him, he'd seen enough to know what happens when people interfere with the fates when they are not asked to.

It was later when Harry and Hermione ran into him. Hearing their recounting of what happened to Katie Bell all the pieces came together.

"So that's what all that meant" he mused.

"What!?" Hermione practically screamed. The fact that someone she was considering a friend may have known and did nothing to possibly help was riling her up faster than anything he had encountered in her young life.

"I was seeing signs all the way to the village. Chaos, friendship, a prize, a journey, danger, and soon. The only thing that I could point out was that something bad would happen soon to a friend. Chaos in this case meant more along the lines of lost control, meaning the imperius, the prize has a substitute meaning for package, which is what she was carrying, and a journey could easily just mean a path, like what you all were on when it happened" He finished while looking at their bewildered faces.

"Wait, signs like divination?" Harry asked, not quite believing what he was hearing.

"Yeah, what other kind of signs are there?"

"Wait, you actually believe in divination, and why didn't you say anything?" Hermione cut in.

"Because the signs weren't for me, they stopped almost as soon as I entered the bookshop. Bad things happen when you interfere where you're not wanted" he said as though it explained itself, though Hermione was having none of it.

"You should have said something!" she continued

"To who, and what? If I had tried myself it would probably be me in there or worse. Didn't either of you take divination or know someone who did explained it? I would have thought that this environment would have been ideal for the sharing of knowledge" he finished with a shrug. Samantha was quite adamant about his learning of divination, while not a seer by any stretch, her limited knowledge did keep her out of a few tight spots in her life and she wanted Salvadore to have the same circumstantial advantage.

"Hermione dropped out of it" Harry filled in with a chuckle.

"Oh like you and Ron were so good at it, it's complete rubbish anyway. Can hardly be counted as a real subject. I'm actually surprised you believe in it" she replied.

Salvadore felt like he'd been insulted and let his anger get the better of him.

"And I'm actually surprised that you could be so narrow minded" he said with a harsh tone that surprised Hermione. Feeling his temper rising to unacceptable levels Salvadore took a deep breath to help calm his nerves, he felt he was going to need every ounce of resolve for the following conversation.

"Oh please, the signs weren't for you, where you were not wanted? You're sounding like Pavarti and Lavander with your head up in the clouds. There is nothing out there to substantiate divination as something worthwhile to study. It's full of interpretation and best guess. I'd have a better chance flipping a coin than looking at tea leaves to figure out what's going to happen. I take it next you'll be preaching to me about the fates or some other rubbish" She bit back

Salvadore let out rueful chuckle and looked at Harry with more than a little pity.

"Now I see. Well let me fill you in on something Hermione…just because you don't understand or believe in it doesn't make it not real" he quickly continued before she could respond. "I have had the glorious opportunity to travel the world with my brother and mentors and I have seen things that just boggle the mind. I've seen a muggle armed with nothing but a sword and his faith charge into a group of frenzied vampires and cut them all down with not a scratch on him. A simple hastily blessed crucifix hold off a room full of demons. I've met beings old and powerful enough to claim they knew Jesus Christ himself and after seeing what they could do, you're damn right I believe them and everything it implies."

"So yes Hermione, I believe it. I may not be able to quantify it or explain it via arithmancy but I undoubtedly believe it. What strikes me though is why you don't? Seven years ago if someone told you that you were a witch and there was this whole secret society living right under your nose, would you have believed them? Even now you believe that an 85kg man can turn into a frog and keep all his mental capacities. Is it so hard to believe that there is something on some higher plane of existence watching over us just because you can't quantify it?"

Hermione just stood there, mouth opening and closing trying to formulate a response. If someone had debated this with her five months ago she would have gone into a diatribe about how it was nothing but a charade of fortune telling that couldn't even tell you what the weather would be like the next day. However, the summer had certainly opened her eyes to how tightly she held on to her own prejudices and preconceptions. She quickly discovered she most certainly did not like that part of herself.

She took a calming breath and reminded herself that this was an intelligent person speaking. There had to be a reason why he would believe such things. Deciding to brace herself for the possible headache she decided to find out why.

"Fine then, explain" she all but demanded, letting her body language all but scream 'this had better be good'.

Salvadore motioned for them to follow as he headed back to their common room. Letting the other two Gryffindors fall in beside him, he slowed his gait so that he would have more time to explain before they got to the noisy common room.

"You're right Hermione, in the sense that divination is the least exact of all the magical disciplines. It's also the most misunderstood. Think of it this way. How many people in the muggle world are truly able to understand quantum and astrophysics? We're probably talking about less than one percent of the total population of some five billion. Would you say that's probably a fair guess?"

Seeing her nod he continued.

"Well true seers and oracles are our physicists and they are even rarer than that. There may be one every two or three generations. They're the ones who'll actually understand what the hell is going on with all these signs, the rest of us are really just taking our best guess. They're just wired differently for lack of a better description. In a text my brother found in Greece, there was an oracle who described it as having a direct link to the heavens only to find out that their language was so beyond our understanding that they could only understand bits and pieces."

Seeing their confused looks he decided to elaborate.

"Think of it like you were talking to someone from, I don't know, Mongolia. You have no frame of reference of what their language is like and your only hope is to somehow interpret their body language and hand gestures. What the oracle didn't know was whether this link, as he called it, was to the gods themselves or just to a different plane where time had no meaning and thus allowed them to glimpse the future."

"Every now and then us layman's can get a 'telegraph' so to speak. If you know what to look for it can give you a nice heads up to what's going on around you but here's the kicker. If those with the direct links can just get flashes or give disjointed stories and even then just barely know what they mean, then what hope do we mundane have to truly interpret what we're seeing before the event happens? Hindsight makes things 20/20 but there's usually not that much margin of error as far as 'time to act' is concerned."

"You said that the signs weren't for you. What do you mean?" Hermione asked, still not convinced but his argument seemed sound so far.

"Well, this is where that whole aspect of free will comes in. Normally the signs will follow you around until the event happens. Its little things, a pattern in the dirt, the shape your tea leaves fall in on the bottom of your cup, maybe something reflecting in the sun that catches your eye. It's almost like a game, a race to figure out what's going on before it happens. That's not even the cruelest part, sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing as it's your actions that will bring the events around."

"How do you figure which is which?" asked Harry this time, who was wishing some of this were covered by Trawleny instead of using class time to come up with ways he was going to die.

"You don't until you choose…which is where you have to be careful. When the signs stop; it means one of two things. Either the time for the event has come and gone, or you're not supposed to be a player. If you decide to get involved anyway…bad things happen. Sometimes to you, sometimes to whoever you were trying to help but the only thing you can count on is that it will almost always be better for everyone if you just stay out of the way."

They reached the common room and Salvadore looked at his companions. Hermione seemed to be considering his words as they walked in and Harry looked very pensive about something. Saying his goodbyes, he went to his bed to rest a little before heading down to dinner. Harry walked in shortly after and pulled up a chair next to Salvadore's mattress.

Seeing his inquisitive look Harry pressed forward with his question.

"If you don't mind my asking Salvadore, what do you know about prophecy's?"

**AN:** Thanks for reading. I've posted the prologue to a new story idea that wouldn't leave me alone. I may alternate the chapters I'm working on but I haven't decided yet.


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